The law of averages finally caught up with the Aberdeen Wings.

Playing without their leading scorer on the season, their starting goalie, on short rest, and dealing with other injuries, the Wings survived a barrage of shots on goal before eventually falling to St. Cloud 3-2 during the series-clinching game of NAHL Central Division championship series Saturday night at the Odde Ice Center.

Aberdeen did all it could to try to even the series, leading by a goal late in the third period before the Norsemen scored two goals in about a two-minute span to take control.

Wings coach Steve Jennings said his players battled through all sorts of adversity to make it a series.

“I told them it would have been easy and understandable for guys to come in and be a little ‘well, this isn’t going to be our night,’ but they were battling through,” Jennings said. “With five minutes left to go in the game, I’m thinking we’re going to St. Cloud for game five, we’re going to make this happen. I thought we were going to wind up in overtime and I thought we would solve it in overtime.”

Instead, it was the top-seeded Norsemen who are moving on in the playoffs after winning three straight from the Wings after dropping the series opener.

Each game was a battle, including an epic triple-overtime thriller on Friday night.

“We challenged them to leave it all on the ice and they did,” Jennings said of his players. “I can’t complain about effort or buy-in or anything like that. This is a good group and they really jelled at the right time.”

Already down their leader from the regular season, Cade Neilson who returned to his homeland to play hockey, the Wings had other injuries, including one that kept starting goalie Anton Castro from playing on Saturday. Normal reserve Greg Orosz stepped up big in his place and kept Aberdeen in the game.

“Greg played an outstanding game. For a kid who hasn’t played in weeks, he played outstanding,” Jennings said. “I thought he was tremendous (Friday) night even coming in in relief and not facing a shot in three hours in warmups. He was really good.”

The Norsemen made sure they tested Orosz early and often, finishing with 52 shots on goal in the game.

“They came down hill fast at him early,” Jennings said. “You could tell they were trying to get to him and trying to erode his confidence. I think he stood that test.”

The Wings scored first when Mason Kelly found the back of the net about midway through the first period. St. Cloud tied the score with just 39 seconds left in the period.

After a scoreless second period, Hugo Gustaffson put the Wings ahead in the third before St. Cloud scored back-to-back goals in less than two minutes to put the visitors over the top and mark the beginning of the end of the Wings’ season.

Following the setback, Wings captain Kyle Gaffney said how difficult it would be not to play with his brotherhood of teammates moving forward.

“We really just showed that we are family and just played for each other this whole year,” Gaffney said.

Gaffney called his time spent playing with the Wings, “the best two years of my life.”

He said will definitely miss the fans, the billet families and the community.

“I can’t say enough good things about Aberdeen,” Gaffney said.

The game concluded the first season at the helm for Jennings as Wings head coach. He said he is looking forward to the future of the program.

“It was a really, good solid year. There are things we want to address. We’ve got some guys moving on and some holes to fill, but I can’t walk out of this feeling we left something on the table,” Jennings said. “I think we proved to a lot of people that even though we had some changes in the team from last year with players moving on, that the culture and the tradition that’s here in Aberdeen continues.”

To see complete stats on the game, click on the following link:

https://www.aberdeenwings.com/stats/game-center/35786