Wisconsin suffers first sweep this season

It’s been an early season of winning for the Wisconsin Windigo hockey team, but that was not the case this past weekend as it dropped two straight on the road against the Anchorage Wolverines, which was the first of the season for the team.

The Windigo lost a 6-3 contest Friday before fighting in a 5-4 thriller in overtime the following evening.

“Unfortunately, our effort this weekend didn’t show up in the results. Games can go that way at times. We showed great effort in stretches. We are learning how to battle through adversity on long road trips like this. We generated some good looks in the offensive zone on Friday, but weren’t able to convert on some grade-A opportunities,” said Windigo head coach John Mitchell about the weekend losses. 

Windigo 3, Wolverines 6

The Windigo came out strong Friday night by dominating the possession in their offensive zone for most of the first period. Despite the effort, Anchorage capitalized on two of their five shots in the frame, while Wisconsin got one of its 11 shots past to tie the game at 1-1. Heading into the middle period with a 2-1 deficit, Wisconsin remained aggressive by outshooting the Wolverines again, this time 13-12. 

Another efficient period for the home team led to four consecutive goals being put home, which put the Windigo deficit to 6-1 halfway through the second. 

Lucas Busch started an early push in the third period, cutting the lead to 6-2 before a powerplay tally at 2:36 of the period made it a three-score game. 

“Their goalie played well. We had some lapses and mistakes that we will learn from,” stated Mitchell after the loss. 

Windigo 4, Wolverines 5

A low-scoring start to the game Saturday turned into a frenzy in the late portions. The Wolverines got ahead once again, burying the puck five minutes into the game to get an early boost from the crowd. Windigo captain Elliot Gulley tied things up at 1-1 with his sixth goal of the season to head into the first intermission tie. 

A scoreless second period saw 22 combined shots, but great goaltending on both sides kept the score 1-1 as the second-period horn sounded. 

Anchorage got the first score in the third period before being answered by Declan Burns, who scored his first NAHL goal to tie the game at 10:28. 

Jackson Ernst put the Windigo up 3-2 at 12:29 of the third period, and Ronne Hill scored his first career NAHL goal just 11 seconds later to increase the Windigo lead to 4-2.

From there, Anchorage rattled off two straight goals off mistakes by Wisconsin, which forced the game into overtime. With a 5-1 shot disadvantage, the Windigo surrendered a game-winner with a scramble in front of the net with 0.8 left on the clock.  

“Prior to the game on Saturday, we talked about being prepared, focusing on first touches, and managing the puck. For the most part, we did a better job of that on

Saturday. I’m pleased with our comeback push on Saturday and seeing a couple of guys get their first goals in the league,” explained Mitchell. “Anchorage is a good team, but so are we. We had a great push in the middle of the third period to jump out to a 4-2 lead. Unfortunately, we made some mistakes and allowed them back into the game.”

The Windigo remain on top of the Midwest Division at 10-2-1-1 through 14 games, with Anchorage right behind at 9-3-1-0. 

Wisconsin will return home this weekend with a two-game series with the Janesville Jets in Eagle River. Both games will start at 7 p.m.