Minnesota Wilderness NAHL

The North American Hockey League (NAHL) has announced that the Minnesota Wilderness, a Cloquet, Minnesota-based junior hockey team, has been granted a membership into the NAHL effective for the 2013-14 season. The group was granted approval to operate in the Cloquet market conditioned upon acquiring, purchasing and relocating the dormant St. Louis Bandits membership. The NAHL is the oldest and largest junior hockey league in the United States, with 24 teams representing 13 states.

For the past three years, the Wilderness have competed in the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL), a Canadian-based Tier II Junior League that is a part of the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). The Wilderness are the three-time defending SIJHL Champions, including this past season. They had won the previous two titles as the Wisconsin Wilderness before relocating to Cloquet this past season. A week ago, the team won the Dudley-Hewitt Cup as the playoff champion of Ontario and will represent the region at the Royal Bank Cup, which is for the National Championship of Junior Hockey in Canada.