A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Team hosts Bismarck this weekend
Three weeks ago the Minnesota Wilderness were poised to make a run in the standings, with the team tied for third in the NAHL’s Central Division and fresh off a sweep of the Bismarck Bobcats. Since then, the Wilderness have found wins hard to come by. The Cloquet-based team is 2-7-1 for the last 10 games and have fallen into fifth place — 10 points out of the last playoff spot.
Central Division leader Aberdeen swept the Wilderness last weekend, outscoring them 8-1 in the two meetings.
The Wilderness have nine games remaining on the regular season schedule. With the exception of Brookings, the rest are against teams ahead of them in the division standings.
The Wilderness were scheduled to travel to Austin to face the Bruins Wednesday.
Hometown fans can show their support in Cloquet this weekend, as the team welcomes Bismarck to the Northwoods Credit Union Arena at 7:05 p.m. Friday and 7:35 p.m. Saturday. It’s a series that could determine the fate of the season for the Wilderness.
“We need to play with that sense of urgency,” assistant coach Mark Vichorek said. “Every game, every period, every shift on the ice could mean the difference of winning and losing and now is the time of year we need to get hot and get the wins.”
The Wilderness will need to sweep the series this weekend to stay alive and to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“One thing we need to focus on is putting the puck in the net,” Vichorek said “We have struggled as of late and we have too much talent to not be scoring like we can.”
The Wilderness have scored only nine goals in the last six games and given up 27 goals over that span.
Dylan Johnson of Cloquet is currently second in scoring with 41 overall points, 19 goals and 22 assists. Landon Langenbrunner, a Lumberjacks standout this season, scored his first goal in last Saturday’s loss to Aberdeen.
The Wilderness will be on the road the following two weekends to face Brookings and Minot. The regular season ends at home with the top team in the division, Aberdeen.
