The Aberdeen Wings not only want to make the playoffs, they are proving they will be a tough out should they happen to get there.

The Wings dominated Minot 7-2 in a North American Hockey League game Saturday night at the Odde Ice Center and now stand just one point away from clinching the fourth and final playoff spot in the Central Division.

The win came on the heels of a narrow 2-1 win over the Minotauros on Friday night. In the rematch, Aberdeen set the tone early and won nearly all of the 50-50 pucks.

“There was a lot more urgency, that’s for sure,” said Wings coach Scott Langer. “This was a team playing for a playoff spot and they showed it tonight.”

The tone was established early when the Wings scored just 24 seconds into the contest as Jibber Kuhl scored on a faceoff win by Sebastian Lillsund, just like the duo did on Friday night.

“We’ve done it a couple of times now and it’s working still,” Lillsund said. “So it’s fun.”

Kuhl gives Lillsund a non-verbal signal so when the puck is dropped, Lillsund knows exactly where to go once he wins the draw.

“We have good chemistry, me and Jibber now on the draw,” Lillsund said, “so it’s fun that it’s finally working.”

That goal was a sign of things to come for the rest of the evening.

“It was definitely a good game. We wanted a good start. We got a good start,” Langer said. “We made some plays tonight. When you make plays you give yourself a chance to win a hockey game.”

While the score remained 1-0 for the rest of the opening period, Aberdeen controlled the pace of play on the way to outshooting the visitors by a 17-5 margin.

“There was a sense of confidence in the locker room. We didn’t have a hangover from (Friday) night which was good,” Langer said. “We wanted to dictate the pace and it worked. We got on them early and often, and didn’t spend a whole lot of time in our defensive zone and that was the plan.”

The Wings broke the game open in the second period with three goals. Luke Backel scored just over three minutes into the period, Nikolai Tishkevish added another goal about four minutes later, and Lillsund took a feed from Kuhl for a goal to push the margin to 4-0.

“Jibber does a fantastic job taking the puck in and creating time for me,” Lillsund said. “I mean perfect pass and I had too much time and just buried it. That was nice.”

Tishkevich added another goal in the third period, before Matthew Martin-Gaudreault found the back of the net, and Kuhl tacked on an empty-netter in the closing minutes.

Tishkevich said Langer had talked all week about taking care of home ice.

“He has been talking about that for a whole week, we’re playing at home, so it’s our ice,” Tishkevich said. “That’s huge for Saturday night when you can be at home. You’re not in a hotel room for 12 hours before a game.”

Aberdeen received goals or assists from 11 different players on the way to the lopsided victory.

“We’re kind of healthy right now so our lineup has become a little deep. … We can roll out any line right now and they can contribute,” Langer said.

While the Wings haven’t officially clinched a playoff spot, yet, they certainly are building momentum heading toward the end of the regular season, when they will host North Iowa for two games next weekend.

“We’ve been beating teams and right now we have this momentum,” Tishkevich said, “and I hope it’s going to keep going and just build even more momentum going into the playoffs, and just our hockey, that’s how we play.”

After having a tough time with the Minotauros earlier in the season, the Wings rose to the challenge for the weekend sweep, the second coming in convincing fashion.

“We were all over them. They weren’t really expecting us to come out this way,” Lillsund said. “We were ready to take it. They’re huge games for us, and good for us to take these two points.”

St. Cloud still has a chance to catch the Wings, but would need to win their final three games and hope the Wings do not gain a point in either of their last two contests.

“I think we need a point. Those are still hard to come by,” Langer said, “so we’ll have to have a good week of preparation and then we’ll go after North Iowa.”

Needless to say, there won’t be any time to celebrate as the Wings will get back to business to prepare for North Iowa.

“In this league it’s always back to business next week,” Tishkevich said.

While the Wings looked sharp on Saturday night, the focus was on the task still at hand.

“This is our best game in a long time,” Lillsund said, “but we’ll just keep working the same next week and come out the same next weekend.”

One thing is for sure, the Wings sent a message against Minot that if they happen to get into the postseason, they will be ready to go.

“You have to make sure that you not just get to the playoffs, you have to be able to contend in the playoffs,” Langer said, “so we’re proving right now down the stretch that we can play in the playoffs.”

To see a complete box score, click on the following link:

https://www.aberdeenwings.com/game-center/?game_id=44208