The Magicians beat the Wilderness 3-2 at the Richfield Arena on Friday in a game that looked to be an easy win down the stretch only to turn into a nail biter as the Willderness closed a 3-1 Magician’s lead to 3-2 in the late minutes of the game.  The Magicians held on to the win finished the game on a 6-on-4 penalty kill.

It was another great crowd Friday and both teams put on another great game of hockey in the fan friendly, up close and personal, Richfield Rink.  Most fans are not far from the action, even those sitting in the leather sofa and side chair above the Magician’s Opponent’s net.

The rivalry between the Magicians (a Twin City based team) and the Wilderness (a Northern Minnesota team) continued to develop in Friday’s game.  Both teams went at each other full tilt for most of the three, 20 minute, periods of play and drew the attention of another nice size crowd of around 700 into the game.  Both teams skated well, both teams played their game.

The Wilderness focused on holding the puck in the Magicians half of the ice and for good parts of the opening period were successful.  As the first period was ending, the Wilderness was beginning to control play.

The Magicians had a number of scoring opportunities in the first period, but started to give up the breakout pass off the left boards (note: right and left are always the defensive goaltenders’ right or left when writing here about the play in a team’s zone.  In neutral ice, left here is defined by the goalie being attacked.  In this case, the Wilderness is attacking the Magicians in the neutral zone and from the Magicians’ goalie point of view that is the left boards.  If instead, the Magicians defense held the blue line and took a shot on the Wilderness net, the shot would be described as coming from the right boards or the Wilderness’ goalie’s right side).

The Magicians had to scramble at times to turn the puck deep in their zone.  The pinching at the blue line by the Wilderness defense was working.  But at the 9 minute mark, the Magicians caught a break.  A hard shot on the Wilderness goalie Frank Oplinger from the top of the left face off circle on a Magician rush took a weird bounce parallel to the right side goal line to the Magicians’ Kyle Krueger/Prior Lake.  Krueger buried the puck in the Wilderness with a one-timer shot so quickly that it went behind Oplinger as he tried to move to his right.  Krueger shot hit the upper left side part of the net to put the Magicians ahead 1-0.  Eetu Karvinen/Finland and Logan Vonruden/Northfield got the assits.

The first period ended with the Magicians up 1-0.

The game tempo increased in the second period.  Both teams went at each other’s net.  The game flow opened.  Three minutes into the second period, the Wilderness tied the game 1-1.  The Wilderness’ Brent Bockman/Papillion, NE scored.  His shot, off a rebound, trickled through Magicians’ goalie Atte Tolvanen/Finland’s pads and rolled across the goal line for only a fraction of a second before Tolvanen gloved the puck away.  An alert ref saw the score and made the right call.  Jack Brandstetter/Minnetrista, MN and Dominik Tiffels/Germany got the assists.

With 9 minutes left in the second period, the Wilderness pressured the Magicians on a power play.  They were lucky to escape without giving up a power play goal.  The Magicians strung four players strung across neutral zone on the penalty kill, but the Wilderness countered by quickly turning the puck in their own zone and attacking the Magicians’ penalty kill before it could set up on a change or re-set after dumping the puck.  The Wilderness’ quickness caught the Magician penalty killers out of position and resulted in the Wilderness forwards easily beating the defense and setting up in the Magicians’ zone.

After escaping the penalty without a giving up a goal, the Magicians tried to counter by hitting the longer center ice pass attempting to break through the Wilderness defense.  Again, the Wilderness defense stepped up and turned the long pass into a Wilderness attack.

The second period ended with the Magicians’ “dodging bullets” and the Wilderness in control of the game, still tied 1-1.  The Magicians were outshot 18-13 in the second period.

In control of the game at the end of the second period, the Wilderness lost control of the game at the start of the third period.  Hockey is that kind of sport; a team’s play can change dramatically during the game especially coming out of the locker room after the second period break.

The Magicians controlled play in the early minutes and scored on a nice three pass play that started in the neutral zone, went to the left boards and ended with a pass to the Karvinen breaking on the weak side.   The intended pass caromed off Karvinen’s ankle for the the score.   Two minutes into the third period, the Magicians led 2-1; Denis Shevyrin/Germany got the assist.

The up tempo game slowed at the 14 minute mark.  The play became ragged for the first time.  It looked like both teams were catching their breath after 46 minutes of fast play.

At the 10 minute mark, Colin Hernon/Bloomington started things going again.  He made an aggressive play and it paid off.  Hernon started a solo attack through the Wilderness defense in the neutral zone and manage to beat three Wilderness defenders.  Still maintaining puck control, Hernon broke free coming into the low right side.  Drawing Oplinger to him, Hernon flipped a backhand pass to Tony Uglem breaking on the weak side.  Uglem buried the puck for a 3-1 Magicians’ lead.  Hernon and Cody Milligan/Las Vegas, NV got the assists.

The two goal lead lasted less than a minute.  The Magicians drew a holding penalty 30 seconds later.  It took the Wild 22 seconds to score on the power play.  The key to the Wilderness goal was the defensive play at the Magicians’ blue line.  Two Magician forwards gambled on knocking the puck through the Wilderness defense into the neutral zone.  They failed.  Now caught out of position, the Wilderness turned the play into a 3-on-1 attack for an easy weak side goal.  Brett Heikkila/Marquette, MI scored the power play goal to cut the lead to 3-2.  Billy Exell/Thunder Bay, ON and Terry Leabo/Fargo, ND got the assists.

The Magician’s stormed back after that goal to take control of the play, but with 20 seconds left to play found themselves shorthanded with the face off in their zone facing a 6-on-4 penalty kill.  Ten seconds later they were at the same faceoff circle facing a 6-on-3 penalty kill.  They managed to survive.

The Magicians lost to the Wilderness 2-0 Saturday in Cloquet.  The Wilderness scored two late third period goals to win the tight game.  The first Wilderness goal was scored by Dan Litchke/Superior,WI.  Thomas Lindstrom/Brooklyn Center, MN scored the second goal.  Wilderness goalie Kaimir Kaskisuo/Finland got the shutout stopping all 21 Magician shots.

Kaskisuo has posted great stats in the early season with a 4-1 record playing in seven games giving up 1.1 goals per game while stopping 96% of the shots on net.

Between periods, two mites teams from Champlin Park put on a game for the fans.  Unofficially, it was declared a draw.  Both the Black Rebels and the White Rebels skated and passed well.  One goal was scored when a White Rebel came up with the puck in the left slot and beat the goalie with high.

All six teams in the NAHL remain above the .500 mark.  Fairbanks still leads the division despite splitting their two games with Coulee Region (Wisconsin).  The Ice Dogs won Friday’s game 3-1 and lost Saturday 2-1.  Both games had 2,200 fans attending in the Ice Dogs’ Big Dipper Ice Arena.  The Chills’ goalie Adam Carlson/Edina was in the net for Coulee Region’s 2-1 win.  Carlson, ranked #5 in the early season, has posted a 4-0 record, giving up 1.3 goals a game while stopping 96% of the shots on net.

Kenai River eked out two victories over the weekend, beat the Corpus Christi IceRays twice in Soldotna, AK, 1-0 in a shootout and 4-3 in overtime.  The two wins tied Kenai River with Fairbanks on top of the Midwest Division.  Coulee Region is in third four points back.  The Wilderness, the Magicians, and the Wenatchee Wild round out the division; all three teams are above .500 and all three have played 10 games to the leaders 13 games.

Wenatchee is on a tough trip to Michigan.  They lost twice to North Division leading Port Huron 2-1 and 5-3.  Chase Perry/Andover, MN was in the nets for both losses.  Perry played the first game and split time in the second.  Despite the two losses, Perry remains in the top ten in NAHL goalies in the early season.  Wenatchee lost the second game despite out shooting Port Huron 22-5 in the third period.

Next weekend, the Magicians host Coulee Region and goalie Edina’s Adam Carlson in a single game played Sunday at 3:00 PM (Vikings play Monday night) at Richfield.  The Chill hosts two games against Janesville, WI Friday and Saturday before traveling to Richfield for Sunday’s game.  The Chill have beaten Janesville twice this season and should win again making Sunday’s game with the Magician’s a key game in the early season.

The Wilderness hosts the Minot Minotauros in a two game series at the Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet, MN.  The Wilderness should notch two wins and move up this week in the standings.

League leading Fairbanks has a bye this weekend.  They will be in Minnesota the following weekend to play games with Austin and the Magicians.  Kenai River also has a bye weekend. The Brown Bears will be in Wenatchee the following weekend to play a three game series with the Wild.

The Midwest Division should tighten after this weekend.  Look for Coulee Region and the Wilderness to move up to become part of a four team knot at the top of the division.  A Magician win over Coulee Region on Sunday will keep them on pace in the chase for the title.  Wenatchee needs to beat the Soo; they can do that.

Alec Butcher/Kenai River (15 points) and Jay Dickman/Austin (14 points) remain the scoring leaders.  Dickman leads the league in goals scored with 9 goals in 9 games.  Dickman scored one goal in the Bruins 11-1 win over Brookings and scored the winning goal the next day in Austin’s 3-2 victory over Brookings on a penalty shot.  Bismarck’s Filip Starzynski/Poland and Austin’s Leclerc Guillaume/France have moved into the top six in points this week.  Tyler Gernhofer/Amarillio, TX has scored 8 goals in the early season.

At goalie, Aberdeen’s Chad Catt posted two 3-0 wins over Minot last week and has taken the top spot in the goaltending stats by giving up 0.80 goals in his first six games.  His record is 4-1-1.  Catt has stopped 98% of the shots on net.  Colin Delia/Amarillio, Kasimir Kaskisuo/Wilderness, Patrick Munson/Fairbanks, and Adam Carlson/Austin complete the top five goalies in the NAHL this week.