Friday April 1st: Aberdeen 3 @ Brookings 4 – Thanks to 49 saves from Josh Kuehmichel, the Blizzard closed the gap for the final playoff spot in the Central Division to just a single point with a 4-3 win over the visiting Wings. The Blizzard jumped out to a 3-0 lead with two 1st period goals from Doug Larson and Colton Schmidt and an early 2nd period goal from Mikael Hakkarainen. The Wings closed the gap to 3-2 with goals from Kevin Fitzgerald in the 2nd period and Tyler Bossert early in the 3rd period. Zach Mitchell then scored a power play goal for Brookings to make it 4-2. Fitzgerald added his second of the game with less than a minute remaining to make it 4-3, but the Wings could not find the equalizer. Peter Thome made 32 saves in the loss. Boxscore
Saturday April 2nd: Brookings 2 @ Aberdeen 1 – Josh Kuehmichel made 32 saves to lead Brookings to a 2-1 road win in Aberdeen, completing a weekend sweep of the Wings and moving the Blizzard into a tie for the 4th and final playoff spot in the Central Division with just two game to go. All the scoring was done in the 1st period. The Blizzard took a 1-0 lead on a goal from Mikael Hakkarainen at the 8:42 mark. The Wings responded five minutes later on their lone goal from Tucker DeYoung. Late in the period, the Blizzard would net the eventual game-winner on a power play goal from Peter Valent. Peter Thome made 25 saves in the loss, which put Aberdeen one point behind both the Blizzard and the Minnesota Magicians for the 4th and final playoff spot. Boxscore
The Wings will close out the regular season at Austin next weekend. With the final playoff spot still up for grabs it all comes down to this weekend. The Wings will need to take care of their business first then get some help from Bismarck and Minot.