Wilderness edge Bruins in shootout on Wednesday, 3-2

January 28, 2015

MN Wilderness 3 @ Austin 2 (SO) – The Minnesota Wilderness increased their lead in the Midwest Division thanks to a 3-2 shootout win in Austin against the Bruins in the lone NAHL game on Wednesday night.

 

After a scoreless 1st period in which both goalies were sharp, the Wilderness would score the game’s first goal while on the power play. The Wilderness set up in the Bruins zone and broke into the high slot on a play from the hash mark. Bruins goalie Evan Smith made the initial save, but the Wilderness kept poking after the rebound and eventually it was poked home by Michael Covach for his 13th goal of the year.

 

The Bruins came right back just two minutes later as they converted on a nice 3 on 2 as passes from Nico Sturm and Alex Pettersson got the puck in the high slot to Jacob Kullberg, who wired a low shot past Wilderness goalie Ryan Anderson to knot things at 1-1.  The Bruins jumped ahead 2-1 as some nice work to keep the puck in the offensive zone led to a nice pass from behind the net by Josh Wilkins to Zach Kennedy in front, who one-timed a shot past Anderson for the first Bruins lead of the night.

 

It took the Wilderness just over five minutes into the 3rd period to tie things up as some nice cycling in the offensive zone got the puck to the point to Ivan Chukarov, who found Tyler Cline in the high slot and Cline wired a shot through the legs of Smith to tie the game at 2-2.

 

After a scoreless 3rd period and overtime, each team scored twice on the first five shooters in the shootout and ultimately the decider was netted by Aaron Miller who put a shot off the post on a nice backhand move to beat Smith and earn the extra point for Minnesota.

 

Smith would end up with 28 saves on the night in the shootout loss and Anderson picked up the win, making 19 saves.