SPOONER, Wisc – The sold out Northwest Sportsplex was alive when the number one seeded Wisconsin Wilderness took to the ice against the Dryden Ice Dogs in game two of the Superiour International Junior Hockey League championship series. The Wilderness had taken game one by a 6-0 score and were looking to go up by another in game two. The hungry Ice Dogs were looking to spoil the party before heading home for games three and four. Despite a meltdown in game one Ian Perrier was playing net for the Dryden Ice Dogs and for the Wilderness John McLean took to the crease to try and continue his shutout streak from the night before. As both teams lined up for puck drop you could feel the tension in the air from the night before when tempers got the best of both teams. The first period was almost deafening as the 405 fans in the Sportsplex were cheering loudly for their Wilderness and got even louder at 16:18 of the first when the Wilderness set up in the Ice Dogs zone and Keith Tessin and Austin Adduono set up Tom Paine for the first goal of the game putting the home team out in front and braking the goose eggs on the score board.
Despite the great defensive effort by the Dogs on the play, the Wilderness had the patience to hold back and find the open shooting lane. The Dryden Ice Dogs let their tempers get the best of them early when they were assessed a penalty at 16:24 when Cole Manning found his way to the sin bin for interference. Finally the Ice Dogs special teams were able to regain their great play of earlier games and held off the Wilderness and the play on the penalty kill was in the Wilderness zone.
At 18:01 the Wilderness goal scorer Tom Paine was giving a penalty for high sticking and the Ice Dogs went to work of the power play but came up empty handed. As the second period opened up the Ice Dogs and the Wilderness were playing back and forth trying to figure each other out and at 6:37 of the second period the Dryden Ice Dogs Dwight Lee and Andrew Hansen teamed up and fed the puck to Ian Schachte and they tied the game on a great play but that did not quite the home crowd. Matthew Mulqueen was able to combine with James Kline and Andre Rakas for the go ahead goal at 13:45 of the second period putting the electricity back into the North West SportsPlex as the home town was up 2-1 heading to the third period with the momentum of the game clearly in the Wilderness corner. To start the third period the Wisconsin Wilderness, were on the penalty kill as Matthew Mulqueen took a penalty at 2:35 for tripping but despite the great effort by the Ice Dogs power play unit the Wilderness were able to hold off the Dogs.
But the Dogs power play unit would get another chance at 8:56 when Adduono was assessed a holding penalty. This time the Ice Dogs would solve the Wilderness penalty kill when Thomas Greene sent a blast at the Wilderness net to tie the game. This game would need overtime to decide a winner. As the overtime period started both teams were ready for a battle and both teams played a great and very smart back and forth game. Tom Paine had taken control of the puck in the neutral zone and brought it into the Dogs end and a cycle was set up before the puck came back to Paine and he found Tessin on the short side and at 11:16 of the overtime period the game ended in a 3-2 score. The winner set the Wilderness with a 2-0 series lead heading back to Dryden for games three and four and the Dryden Memorial Arena.
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