Minnesota Wilderness Ready for Final Stretch of NAHL Season

The Wilderness are right in the thick of the playoff chase with just a few games to go, thanks to some big wins in recent weeks.

CLOQUET, Minn. – Don’t look now, but the Minnesota Wilderness is making some major noise in the final stretch of the NAHL season.

The Wilderness are right in the thick of the playoff chase with just a few games to go. That’s thanks to some big wins in recent weeks, including a home sweep last weekend against Midwest division leaders Springfield.

“We went into the game just saying play defense first and we’ll wear them out, shut down their chances and soon enough, they’ll give up and they’ll get frustrated without scoring and then we’ll be able to capitalize on ours,” said forward Gunnar Thoreson.

“Well, we’ve been playing really good since January 1st. We’ve had a heck of a run here so we knew that if we played our hockey that good things would happen and that’s what we did. We played Wilderness hockey and guys really just did a great job all weekend long and beat a good team twice,” head coach/general manager Dave Boitz said.

The Wilderness scored more goals in their first 20 games of the season than they have in their last 20 games. But they’ve only lost five games since the new year, and that’s thanks to a bigger emphasis on defense.

“When we get those opportunities, they may not come as much because we’re playing so defensively. But when they come, guys are ready to bury because we’re all pretty antsy to get the puck into the net. But yeah, it’s just like, once we start tightening things up defensively, we started winning more games and just trusting our coaches, trusting each other and it’s been good though,” said forward Charlie Erickson.

The Wilderness will be back on the road this weekend with a big series against Janesville, who are currently three points behind Minnesota in the Midwest division standings.