Lucas Punkari
After having their backs pushed against the wall by the Fort Frances Lakers, the Wisconsin Wilderness have shown exactly why they were the team to beat during the SIJHL regular season.
The defending Bill Salonen Cup champs blanked the Lakers 1-0 at a jam-packed Ice For Kids Arena last night to force a seventh-and-deciding game in the SIJHL final tomorrow night at the Northwest Sports Complex in Spooner.
Game time is 7 p.m.
“I thought that tonight was a perfect setting to wrap things up,” Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan sighed after the game.
“I was not pleased with our play in the first 40 minutes as they had the jump on us and we also made some bad decisions with the puck,” he noted.
“We played decent in the third period, but it was too late to try and battle back against a good team like Wisconsin.”
After a scoreless first period, the Wilderness scored early in the second when Wilson Housley beat Lakers’ goalie Tyler Ampe during a 2-on-1 rush.
The Lakers tried to net the tying marker but were turned aside time and time again by Tanner Milliron. The SIJHL’s goalie-of-the-year made 23 saves to earn the game’s first star.
“This feels absolutely great,” Milliron smiled.
“After the two games that we lost here last week, we knew what we had to do in order to win these games,” he said.
“And the guys have been playing great in order to come back.”
Ampe was no slouch between the pipes himself, turning aside 30 shots in a losing effort.
“He’s been our best player, by far, in this series,” Strachan lauded.
“Tonight he had to face a number of 2-on-1 rushes. And other than that one goal he gave up, he kept us in the game early on.”
Tomorrow night’s winner will go on to represent the SIJHL in this year’s Dudley Hewitt Cup, which gets underway next Tuesday (April 17) at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay.
