BROOKINGS – The puck didn’t bounce the Blizzard’s way on Friday night at Larson Ice Center as the Minnesota Wilderness took a 2-1 lead in the Central Division semifinals with a 4-2 win over the home team.
“A few more details – there’s a few things that we talked about that we needed to do and we lacked on doing it (tonight),” said Blizzard head coach Dan Daikawa. “Going down to 5 D wore our guys out a little bit – that didn’t help with the penalty (in the first period) – we just have to put in an effort that we don’t want to lose and I don’t know if that was 100 percent the way we played tonight.
“I think that we should have been way more desperate playing at home.”
After a scoreless first period in which the Blizzard played a man down for five minutes after Tim Faulkner was called for a major cross-checking penalty – and subsequently given a game misconduct – Brenden Stanko got the home team on the scoreboard less than two minutes into the second frame.
Stanko followed up on a rebound off a Brandon Kruse shot and as he lifted the puck over Luke Kania’s right shoulder to light the lamp while Nicholas Cardelli also earned an assist.
The Wilderness evened the score three minutes later when Zach Mills needed just 24 seconds on a power-play opportunity to get the puck past Jake Begley after a scrum in front of the net.
With 3:04 to play in the period, the visitors took the lead after Gunnar Goodmanson put in a rebound to make it 2-1.
The Blizzard needed just 21 seconds to tie it back up and it was Stanko again knocking a rebound off another Kruse try with Cardelli again earning another point for an assist as the game headed into the final period knotted at 2-apiece.
Michael Zuffante scored the game-winning goal off a shot from the left wing with 6:32 to play in the game, and the Wilderness added an empty-netter with 1:17 on the clock for the final margin.
Kania finished with 28 saves for the win in net as Begley stopped 34 of the 37 shots he faced.
MINNESOTA WILDERNESS 4, BROOKINGS 2
Minnesota 0 2 2 – 4
Brookings 0 2 0 – 2
First Period
No scoring. Penalties – Tim Faulkner, B (cross checking-major), 9:47; Tim Faulkner, B (cross checking-game misconduct), 9:47.
Second Period
1, Brookings, Brenden Stanko (Brandon Kruse, Nicholas Cardelli), 18:06. 2, Minnesota, Zach Mills (Jesse Farabee, Louis Roehl), 14:53 (pp). 3, Minnesota, Gunnar Goodmanson (Nick Altmann, Ashton Altmann), 3:04. 4, Brookings, Brenden Stanko (Brandon Kruse, Nicholas Cardelli), 2:43. Penalties – Brendan Aird, B (holding), 15:17; Jesse Farabee, M (roughing), 12:19; Christian Canavati, B (unsportsmanlike conduct), 12:19; Gunnar Goodmanson, M (boarding), 8:25.
Third Period
5, Minnesota, Michael Zuffante (Jesse Farabee, Tristan Rostagno), 6:32. 6, Minnesota, Tim Nicksic, 1:17 (en). Penalties – none.
Shots on goal: Minnesota 7-15-16—38; Brookings 14-8-8—30. Power-play opportunities: Minnesota 1-of-2; Brookings 0-of-1. Goalies: Minnesota, Luke Kania (30 shots-28 saves); Brookings, Jake Begley (37 shots-34 saves).
A – 806.
