Saturday afternoon, humidity made a quick appearance.  The dry coolness from Friday and early Saturday went east, and St. Louis MO weather set in.  For two teams, already fatigued from a grueling 133 minute marathon that ended just after midnight Saturday, the humidity was not a good thing to see.  The ice would be soft for game two at Riverside and by Monday morning the ice would be out.  Soft ice meant legs sore from the game one marathon would have to work harder and it was already starting to fog in the half filled arena an hour before game time when each team’s updates were distributed for Saturday’s game.

Austin’s problems for game two were quickly apparent.  The team had lost winger Tony Uglem/Moorhead on their first line.  They had to move winger Alex Jasiek off their fourth line to take Uglem’s spot.  Jasiek is a smart player and a good puck handler, but does not provide the physical presence of an Uglem.  Jasiek was a late January pick up by Austin.  With Jasiek moved, Austin re-structured their fourth line bringing Zach Kennedy and defense Derek Olmschenk in as wings.  What had been an effective fourth line checking the Wilderness top line of Darian Romanko, Ian Mansfield and Aaron Miller in game one was now a line that saw spot duty.  The Bruins line centered by Josh Wilkins with JC Maclean and Brian Bachnak would be paired against Romanko’s line with Nico Sturm line to come off the bench in mid-shift to alternate play with Wilkins against Romanko.  Luke Dietsch’s line would be carrying the offensive punch.

The Wilderness had few changes to their lines.  Though they would have to fight off the same fatigue as Austin from Friday’s game, their lines were intact.  Along with Romanko’s line, game one’s goal winning scorer Billy Exell and wings Tyler Cline and Dan Litchke remained together.  Robb Stautz centered one line.  Alex Toscano and Isak Bergland were often paired.  Brett Heikkila and Nicklas Lehtimaki move around.  Brock Kautz would start his 10th straight playoff game keeping his and the Wilderness’ playoff winning streak intact.  After the long game Friday, the Bruins’ went with Jake Kielly in the nets.

Period 1-The first period is no story

The opening period was ragged.  The game had no rhythm in the first period.  The line changes were staggered with often one player changed at a time.  Austin went for the match-up on Romanko’s line trying to match Wilkins line for at least part of a Romanko shift and then swing to Sturm’s line, but it was not working.  Halfway through the period, the fog started to come off the ice in the crowd packed arena.  With 10 minutes left to play in the period, the Wilderness finally found some rhythm to their offense.  But there was better rhythm shown by the fans dancing to the music during play stoppages.  The “wolf legs” were there for both teams in the opening period, but the soft ice was bound to kick in later in the game.  Fatigue started to show for the Bruins with five minutes left in the period.  The Wilderness drew a slashing penalty and the faceoff would be in the Wilderness zone.  But the Austin power play was none existent.  They never got organized and ended up chasing the puck in their zone for the two minutes.  Austin forwards were still be driven wide by the Wilderness defense and forced to attack swinging through the corners often coming from below the end line.  With no real good shot, they tried to force the puck from in close but could not beat Kautz.  The first period ended in a 0-0 tie with Austin outshooting Minnesota 9-6 in the period.

Period 2-A simple shot

In the second period, both teams opened playing good hockey.  They had “settled” and the line changes were cleaner and the play more crisp.  The Wilderness started to play passive as they had in the first game, dumping the puck and letting the Bruins set up their breakout.  But the Bruins were countering by using the normal pass to a Bruin at the blue line as a foil, drawing the center and defense to one side in the neutral ice and trying to hit the long pass with a forward breaking at the Wilderness blue line.  It almost worked.  But the attempts to focus checking Romanko’s line were drifting and one of Romanko’s wing position seemed to be constantly filled by different player.  With four minutes left in the period, the game was still 0-0.  Romanko’s line was still on the ice when Lehtimaki came off the bench for a wing, picked up a loose puck along the left boards and beat the defense low.  He shot the puck from a low angle and it rebounded to Ian Mansfield in the lower right slot.  Mansfield’s shot beat Kielly to break the tie.  It put Minnesota up 1-0.  It was the game winning goal.  It was a simple shot, nothing fancy.  Austin tried to storm back to tie the game but two minutes later, Brett Heikkila, playing wing with Romanko, scored to get the insurance goal putting Minnesota up 2-0 as the second period ended.

Period 3-Thou shall not skate below the Bruins’ high slot

The Wilderness strategy at the start of the third period was to focus on defense.  With the Robertson Cup 20 minutes away from the trip to the Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet MN, it was clear that no more than two Wilderness forwards would be skating below the high slot.  Clearly the bench edict to the centers “thou shall not skate there”.  And it worked in part because the fatigue had set in, the Austin defensemen’s legs were gone.  No “wolf legs” and no real pressure from the Wilderness offense, the Austin defensemen just could not get an organize attack started as time after time, the puck was fed to neutral ice and bounced back behind the Austin goal.

As the clock counted down, the Austin defensemen tried to do more to fed their forwards by carrying the puck further forward.  The Wilderness wings were started to get operating room low in the Bruins’ zone.  It led to their third goal.  A hard shot from the right side resulted in the puck bouncing and stopping in the left crease.  No Austin defenseman was there to clear, but the Wilderness’ Heikkila was there.  Knowing that a quick backhander would by stopped by Kielly’s diving save attempt, Heikkila picked up the puck with his backhand, took the time to back slightly away from the net, and shot the puck in the net over Kielly’s slidding save attempt.  With five minutes left on the clock, the game was over.  Trailing 3-0, Austin tried torally and their fans were urging them on.  Few left the arena.  But the Wilderness added an empty net goal by Lehtimaki to end the scoring 4-0.  The Bruins outshot the Wilderness 26-24, but Kautz shut Austin down.  And the celebration began.

What is next?

The NAHL draft is not far away and all three Minnesota teams will be conducting their pre-draft camps next weekend.  Austin’s will be held May 21st-24th at Wilson Arena in Milwaukee WI; The Wilderness’ tryouts will be held May 22nd-24th at Andover’s Community Center; and the Magician will be holding theirs May 22nd-24th at their home ice in Richfield.  Coulee Region will hold their pre-draft camp at Green Island Ice Arena in La Crosse WI starting May 22nd.  May 22nd is only five days from the time of this writing.  Hockey never sleeps in Minnesota, the rinks only get warmer in the summer.