Wilderness Spilt Series

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

Photos Contributed

The Minnesota Wilderness split their weekend series with the Kenai River Brown Bears this weekend in Kenai Alaska. The Wilderness who are on a two week road trip to Alaska opened with a 6-2 win over the Bears at Soldotna Ice Arena. Nicholas Lehtimaki had a 4 point night for Minnesota as he had 2 goals and 2 assists on the night.

Lehtimaki, Michael Covach, and Billy Exell all scored first period goals as the Wilderness jumped out to an early lead which the Brown Bears could not recover. Brett Heikkila scored in the second stanza to give the Wilderness a 4-1 lead after two periods. Tyler Cline and Lehtimaki’s second goal of the game came in the third period which put Minnesota in front 6-1, Kenai added a late goal in the contest. Brock Kautz stopped 24 shots for the win in the nets.

Saturday night saw the Brown Bears gaining some revenge as the Wilderness as the Bears beat the Wilderness by a score of 5-1. Lehtimaki continued his goal onslaught as he scored his third goal of the trip to to put the Wilderness in front 2:07 into the second period. That however was the last goal of the night, as Kenai River scored 5 unanswered goals to pick up the divisional win and split the series.

The Wilderness out shot Kenai River for the second consecutive night but Adam Derks came up big Saturday stopping 30 of 31 shots he faced. Kautz stopped 25 of the 28 shots he faced in the loss. The Wilderness fall to 8-4 overall in the Midwest Division and are in third place based on points, but the Wilderness have played four fewer games then division leading Fairbanks. The Wilderness will meet the Ice Dogs next Friday and Saturday as they wind up their road trip.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com