Weekend Recap: Coming off two dominant wins the prior weekend, the Windigo looked to continue their strong play against the visiting Janesville Jets. The series with the Jets was an early season battle for supremacy in the Midwest Division. Janesville entered the weekend leading the division standings with 12 points and a record of 5 wins and 4 losses (two in overtime). The Windigo held second place in the division with a record of 5 wins and 3 losses prior to last weekend’s competition.
Friday, October 6: Janesville 3 at Windigo 4: The first period saw the visitors carry the play, scoring goals 7:52 and 15:18 into the game, and outshooting the Windigo 14 to 7. Newly named co-captain Max Martin broke the ice for the Windigo by tipping a bouncing puck into the net 4 minutes into the second period. Tyler Grahme tied it up with a power play goal 8:12 into the middle frame. Grahme’s initial shot bounced behind Jets’ goalie Matthew Alberti, affording Grahme the opportunity to pounce on his own rebound. Janesville took advantage of an unfortunate Windigo turnover deep in their own slot to regain the lead (3-2) late in the second period. Everett Pietila tied it once again just over 7 minutes into the third, threading the needle with a shot high to the short side of the net. Luke Baker concluded the comeback for the Windigo with just over a minute remaining. Grahme gathered a loose puck and found Baker driving to the far side of the crease and fed Baker a pass that he simply redirected into the net for the game winner. Windigo netminder Linards Lipskis had 28 saves for his fifth win of the season. Alberti took the loss in net for the Jets with 35 saves.
Saturday, October 7: Janesville 7 at Windigo 2: As they did Friday night, Janesville jumped out to a 2-0 lead. However, unlike Friday, it was the Windigo who actually carried the play in the first period outshooting the Jets 14 to 7. The Windigo outshot their opponent again in the second period 13 to 4, with many of those shots coming on power play opportunities. The Jets expanded their lead to 3-0 just 29 seconds into the second. Two minutes later the Jets’ Conner Brown put his team up 4-0. Logan Nickolaus responded with his first goal of the season, assisted by Zach Cline and Leo Eperjesi. To spark hopes of another comeback, Tyler Grahme (from Max Martin and Erick Comstock) scored his fourth of the season 7 minutes into the second period, to bring the game within 2 goals. To the disappointment of 430 Windigo loyalists in attendance, it was all Jets from there. Janesville scored once more in the second and twice in the third period to close out the road victory, 7-2. Jets’ goalie Matthew Alberti made 36 saves in route to the victory for the visitors. Logan Rose surrendered 4 goals, taking the loss in net, and was relieved by Linards Lipskis in the second period. The duo combined to make 21 saves on 28 shots on net.
Coach’s Comments:
Windigo head coach Blake Hietala shared the following after the weekend series: “I was pleased with our tenacity to comeback in the third period on Friday. The Jets will be a tough out all season. We have good talent on this team, but we have some areas we need to improve. We need to come out of the gate hitting on all cylinders. We’ve given-up the first goal too often this season. We need to find an appropriate balance between creativity with the puck and protecting the puck, especially in our own zone. It was great to see Luke Baker and Logan Nickolaus score this weekend. We need secondary scoring like that to relieve some of the pressure that opposing teams apply to our leading scorers like Max Martin, Will Schumacher and Tyler Grahme.”