It was a case of two teams going in opposite directions on Wednesday night.
The Minnesota Wilderness, the fifth-ranked team in the Canadian Junior Hockey League, had won five straight coming into their second meeting of the season against the Thunder Bay North Stars. The host stars, on the other hand, had lost two straight and five of their last seven.
Not much changed as far as the fortunes of the two teams mattered.
The Wilderness buried the Stars in the second period, scoring four unanswered goals, Nick McCormack netting a goal and two assists in a 1:45 span to lead front-running Wisconsin (18-3-0) to a convincing 9-0 win at Fort William Gardens. They added four more in the third, despite starting goalie Jayme Brattengeier's banishment to the bench in favour of backup Eric Ouellett.
"It was a tight game and I thought we skated very well for 60 minutes and I think that was probably the biggest difference," Minnesota coach Rod Aldoff said afterward.
"We skated 200 feet up and down the ice and skated pretty hard doing it. And obviously we got some power plays and some breaks. But in my mind the kids deserved the breaks. They worked hard for them and I thought we played a really good game."
Conrad Sampair had a pair of goals for the Wilderness, with singles also going to Jake Larson, Brian Drapluk, Mike Dietrich, Jake Maxson, Danny Barowiak and Joe Drapluk.
Offensively and defensively Aldoff's troops are on a roll, though he prefers to think of it as business as usual, with a much bigger goal in mind. The Stars have advanced to the Dudlty Hewitt Cup the past two seasons, but fell short of reaching the Royal Bank Cup each time.
It's something Aldoff hopes to rectify next spring, and the work starts now, he said.
"We're winning games, and that's what we want to do," he said. "I look at making sure we're progressing, getting better for the ultimate, being ready for the playoffs just to make a big push. We have work to do. We have to get better, but we're progressing and getting better every game, every day, and that's all we can do.
"If our hard work and our hard play brings us wins and stuff like that, that's what we're here to do."
Larson beat Brattnegeier 95 seconds into the game, but neither side managed to solve the other the rest of the first, the North Stars unable to get pucks to the net, a troubling trend that lasted the remainder of the game. Sampair started the puck rolling in the second, netting his first of the night at 12:02. By the 16:58 mark the Wilderness romp was on, Minnesota up 5-0 and ready to coast to the lopsided win.
But they didn't let up in the third.
Sampair, who scored the opener in the second, repeated himself in the final stanza, scoring the second of three power play goals the Wilderness would score, undressing Ouellette on a deke and deftly tucking it through the five-hole to up the lead to 6-0. Joe Drapluk, Bartowiak and Maxson rounded out the scoring in the third.
Goalie Gordie Defiel made 23 saves picking up his third shutout for Wisconsin, which has blanked the opposition seven times in 21 contests.
After the game it was learned that the North Stars had replaced their head coach, Kevin Kahoot, with former coach Todd Howarth.
Howarth was let go by the team in January, 2012 after serving for nearly a decade at the helm.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Minnesota, Larson (MacKinnon, Dietrich) 1:35. Penalties: Nicholas TB (holding) 7:54, Thielan MIN (slashing) 12:18, Nicholas TB (interference) 18:58.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 2. Minnesota, Sampair (Sova,Dietrich) 12:02. Minnesota, B. Drapluk (J. Drapluk, McCormack) 15:13 pp. 4. Minnesota, Dietrich (Larson, McCormack) 16:17. 5. Minnesota, McCormack (Dietrich, Barral) 16:58. Penalties: MacKinnon MIN (slashing) 5:48, Kaarela TB (slashing) 14:23, Kaarela TB (cross checking) 18:07.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 6. Minnesota, Sampair (Sova, Maxson) 5:56 pp. 7. Minnesota, J. Drapluk (Dietrich, Haskin) 9:16. 8. Wisconsin, Bartowiak (Zurcik, Haskin) pp. 12:58. 9. Wisconsin, Maxson (Sampair, Haskin) 16:28. Penalties: McCormack WIS (kneeing), Hynnes TB (misconduct) 1:01, Kahoot TB, Thielen MIN (fighting majors, misconducts) 3:26, Vaillant TB (tripping) 5:20, Shockley MIN (slashing), Sova MIN (roughing, misconduct) 9:47, Brown TB (tripping) 12:40, Prout TB (hooking) 19:05.
GAME DATA – SOG – Minnesota 10-9-14-33, Thunder Bay 11-7-5-23; Power plays (goals-chances) – Minnesota (3-5), Thunder Bay (0-2); Goaltenders – Wisconsin: Gordie Defiel, Thunder Bay: Jayme Brattengeier (19 shots, 14 saves), Eric Oullett (0:00, third); A: 250 (estimated).
