Photo by Rich Moll
Written By: Ryan Baker, Journalist
For the second matchup between the Minnesota Wind Chill and Pittsburgh Thunderbirds this season, the drama happened before the game even started. As a massive storm rolled through the Twin Cities area right before the game, play was delayed for more than 40 minutes.
As the game progressed, the conditions were nearly perfect, but that didn’t prevent the disc from being slippery, the field from being wet, and the wind direction from changing. Those were things that both teams had to endure during the first half, and for the well-known difficult wind at Sea Foam Stadium, the normal left-to-right (when watching from the stands) was reversed.
The actual gameplay was not drama-filled, as the Wind Chill took a commanding lead right away, leading to their 21-16 win. The D-line stepped up right away, getting a break on the first two points of the game, ending in a Noah Hanson to Bret Bergmeier connection in the end zone and a Tanner Barcus to Peter Mans score, respectively.
Photo by Rich Moll
It was more of the same the rest of the quarter. The D-line produced two more breaks during the quarter, and Hanson reaped the benefits of Pittsburgh’s trigger-happy offense with two blocks and one more score to close out the first frame. There was immediate comfort for Minnesota being up 6-2, despite getting broken on the first point of the second quarter.
Giving up that first break of the game to Pittsburgh lit a fire under head coach Ben Feldman’s squad, as they rattled off five straight points, expanding their lead to eight. Then we saw something that normally doesn’t happen to Minnesota. The T-birds scored three straight points, which closed the gap to six by halftime.
After the break, the Wind Chill continued the break train, ending in a Cameron Lacy to Max Hanscom score. Not only did Hanscom put up numbers in this game, but he has been a catalyst through the first five games of the year. He walked away with four blocks, which tied him with Justin Burnett for nine blocks this season, the most on the team.
Photo by Rich Moll
“It’s just executing the game plan. We have a ton of trust in our teammates, which makes it easy to play tight defense. We made some adjustments this week to our D-line offense as well, that I think paid off, which allowed us to stretch the field vertically,” said Hanscom.
Minnesota amassed 15 blocks on the night, mainly due to Pittsburgh sending a deep shot where three or more Wind Chill players were able to get underneath the huck to help. After three quarters of play, the Wind Chill were up 17-9.
While Minnesota was in control for the entire game, the fourth quarter showed that the Wind Chill have a lot of work to do to get back to the championship game. They were outscored 7-4 behind another three-point run by Pittsburgh as the clock ran down. The O-line converted on just 53% of their chances, a mark that needs to be increased.
“I was happy to get a win. I think there is a little bit of a sour taste in our mouths following the poor performance in the fourth. The most important thing was getting the win and taking care of business at home, especially after slipping against these guys last year,” said Feldman.
Photo by Rich Moll
There is still development required, but the bright spots for the reigning champs came in the form of their red zone conversion rate, only failing to convert one time out of 14 chances. Also, we saw the love spread around. Five players had at least two goals, with Paul Krenik leading the charge with three.
Fans also got their first taste of Kyle Suelflow, watching him put up one assist, one goal, and two blocks in his UFA debut.
“Coming into the game, I knew that there would be opportunities for me to make. My biggest takeaway from the game is that I’d love to have better stamina. I’m still dealing with a hip injury, so that has limited my ability to properly get my body ready for games. Overall, I am very pleased with how everything went,” said Suelflow.
The brightest spot of them all came in the last minute of the game when Dylan DeClerck was racing underneath a huck by Pittsburgh. He was surrounded by players from both sides, and as the disc floated down and bodies dropped, fans saw DeClerck’s arm reach up and swat away the disc. That block marked the breaking of Jimmy Kittlesen’s franchise-leading block record.
Photo by Rich Moll
That moment came in DeClerck’s ninth year in the UFA and represents the culmination of his hard work being a cornerstone of this franchise. Not to mention, DeClerck and his friends, family, and fans were celebrating his recent birthday, so the eruption from the crowd was even louder than it perhaps normally would have been.
“It was a lot of fun to have a big celebration and get the win last night with friends and family in attendance. I felt some relief finally getting the record, but mainly was feeling joy and excitement for reaching a goal that I never imagined was possible when I joined the team as a 20-year-old from Iowa,” said DeClerck.
Minnesota, 4-1, sits behind only Chicago, 3-0, in the Central Division. It’s on to the next for Minnesota, and the next game is a highly anticipated matchup with the Madison Radicals next weekend at Breese Stevens Field.
