*Photo contributed by Brittany Hart – @britt_harttt on Instagram
The Wisconsin Windigo are on fire after sweeping the Midwest Division-leading Minnesota Wilderness this past weekend. The Windigo took Friday’s contest to overtime and won 4-3 before winning their third consecutive game with a 4-2 victory on Saturday.
Friday, Oct. 24
In the series opener, the Windigo stayed hot with their second straight win, taking down the Wilderness 4-3 in overtime. After Minnesota took an initial 1-0 lead, the Windigo leveled the score on a power play late in the first period. The goal was scored by second-year winger Ronnie Hill, who tallied his fifth goal of the season.
After a second period where Noah Dziver, the point-leader for Minnesota, scored the lone goal, the Windigo scored two of the three goals in the third to send the game to overtime. Second-year defenseman Michael Ryan tallied the first goal of the period before fellow blueliner Henry Steele scored his first goal as a member of the team.
The overtime period went just over three and a half minutes before Ryan tallied his second goal of the game to help the Windigo pull off their first overtime win of the season. On his game-winning score, both Alexios Georgaklis and Teddy Richardson picked up their second assists of the contest.
In net, rookie goaltender Easton Cody tended a fantastic game, making 36 saves on the 39 attempts on target he faced. His effort would warrant him the second star of Friday night’s game.
Saturday, Oct 25
Just 24 hours later, the Windigo took care of business and completed the sweep over the Wilderness with a 4-2 win. After a scoreless first period, the Windigo struck first with a power-play goal scored by rookie winger Ryan Mottau.
After the Wilderness took the lead before the end of the second period, the Windigo would show their resilience by scoring three unanswered goals in the final 20 minutes. First, rookie winger Brendan Finley scored the second power-play goal of the game to level the score. The goal was Finley’s fifth of the season, which made him the joint-leader on the team with Hill. Roughly eight minutes later, Mottau scored his second goal of the game to give the team a 3-2 lead. Mottau has two goals in back-to-back weekends, and he is third on the team with four scores. To further cement the lead, rookie defenseman Cal Grilz scored his first goal with the Windigo, which raised his point total this season to six.
Between the pipes, rookie goaltender Casimir Weckstrom played well and put together his second consecutive win. He made 27 saves on 29 attempts to help the Windigo complete the sweep over the division-leading Wilderness.
Windigo Stats
The Windigo currently have a tie atop the team’s point leaderboard between Georgaklis and Richardson. Both top-line forwards have four goals and 10 assists, totaling 14 tallies. After a two-goal performance Friday, Ryan has 12 points with three goals and nine helpers.
For goaltenders, the team is led in wins by Weckstrom, who has a 3-3-1 record with a 2.32 GAA and a .927 save percentage. Cody has a 2-3-0 record with a .922 save percentage and a 2.78 GAA.
Standings
With three consecutive wins, the Windigo now have a 7-7-1 record and sit in fourth place in the NAHL Midwest Division standings, just one point behind their I-94 rival, the Janesville Jets. The Wilderness are still holding onto the division lead at 12-2-2, but lost their mantle of having the league’s best record to the East Division’s Maryland Black Bears.
Up Next
The Windigo are slated to travel to Springfield, IL to wrap up their three-week road trip with two games against the Jr. Blues. Puck Drop on Friday, Oct. 31 is set for 7:05 PM Central Time. Game time on Saturday, Nov. 1 will be at 6:05 PM Central Time.
All Windigo home and road games can be streamed on NATV. Visit nahltv.com for more details.
