I started this season ignorant about indoor soccer in general. I hope you have enjoyed my journey as I gradually got familiar with it. As I said after the first Blizzard win of the season, it also helps when the team wins.
With Blizzard not playing until the weekend, a hat tip to Wisconsin Soccer Central's coverage of a post-season rooting interest in the Northland yet, the Milwaukee Wave in the league above, MASL.
Max Ferdinand scored four goals on the night and goalkeeper Gerardo Perez didn't allow a goal over the final 38 minutes of action as the Milwaukee Wave kept their season alive by beating the Empire Strykers twice at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena to win a Major Arena Soccer League quarterfinal series.— Wisconsin Soccer Central on BlueSky (@wisconsinsoccercentral.com) April 6, 2026 at 10:45 PM
On the other side of the bracket, we travel to Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence, Missouri, where the Blizzard's affiliated MASL club Kansas City Comets faced the St. Louis Ambush. Game 1 of the series was hosted by the Comets on Monday, with the visitors finishing 9-4 winners, and on a 5-on-2 power play. With the series tied, the tie-breaker is a single 15 minute quarter, played shortly after the end of the regulation 4 quarters.
Game 2 was held on Wednesday at Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri, to see if Comets could force - and then win - that knockout quarter.
KC Soccer Journal was on the case for that. Flores and Marques hit big milestones for the Comets this week as their season came to a disappointing conclusion against the Ambush in the playoffs. kcsoccerjournal.com/04/09/2026/j...
[image or embed]— Mike (@mikedkuhn.bsky.social) April 9, 2026 at 3:52 PM
Back in the Twin Cities, a sub-500 record is not where the Blizzard wants to end the season, although the Iowa Demon Hawks have made everyone look silly and will host the playoff quarter-finals. The semi-finals are hosted by Omaha, who have largely recovered from a slow start to look worthy of the host's golden ticket.
Before we say goodbye, both of the teams from the Hawkeye state came to visit Blizzard's temporary home in Circle Pines, Minnesota. Blizzard expect to be back at the $2800 a match Warner Coliseum on the State Fairgrounds in Falcon Heights following a $22 million renovation for the 1950s-era facility.
Minnesota Blizzard 11-8 Iowa Raptors
Raptors came in from Cedar Rapids, IA, having lost their last two games, although they had already secured the season series courtesy of wins by 8-7 and 10-5 margins. In fact, the 10-5 result in Circle Pines was the last loss the Blizzard had, having won two in a row against Omaha at the end of March.
Short rosters for both sides, including illness for the Blizzard. The starters for the Raptors were John Holland (GK), Andrew Lopez, Jonah Dancer, Ian Kearney, Felipe Batalla, Emmanuel Krah. The Blizzard countered with Daniel Orozco (GK), Devan DiGrado, Jared Garcia, Jordan Maldonado, Gabe Arriguin, Ryan DeBois.
The game started with Blizzard on the front foot with three saves by Holland, but at 13:07 the Raptors blasted home through Emmanuel Craw from the right wing. With 10:50 left in the first, Craw was blue-carded for a hard foul in the penalty area and Blizzard were on the power play. Francesco Estoban scored as a shot as Maldonado's shot ricocheted off the boards. Blizzard drove down the left and Boubacar Diagana scored at the far post with 8:19 left in the first to put Blizzard ahead. Orozco blunted a point-blank shot, and the teams went into a mandatory timeout.
After the timeout, it was Orozco's turn to block multiple shots. A free kick at the top of the Blizzard penalty area was squared instead to Kopany for the hosts, who broke the other way and slotted home the third goal with 5 minutes left in the first. With less than 4 minutes left, Holland and the post intervened to keep it 3-1. Esteban drove in down the left and blasted the ball through the arms of Holland. 4-1 with 2:31 left. DiGrado is stuffed by Holland with 1 minute left in the first. With 14 seconds on the first quarter, Arriguin was blue-carded, and the Raptors entered a quarter-straddling power play, which they nearly capitalized on immediately, but Orozco was equal to a powerful shot.
14:17 left in the second, Kopany was blue-carded for boarding, and the Raptors went on a 5 on 3. Jonah Dancer scored from the left wing with 13:14 left. Dancer repeated the trick with the 5 on 4 deficit with 12:42 remaining. Ryan DeBois tapped home for the hosts' fifth goal with 12:19 remaining, from close in after Erik Pereira's dribbled in. Esteban broke away, but the counterattack was stuffed by Holland on Pereira. With 8:46 left before half, DiGrado stood alone up top, and eventually the ball reached him for an easy shot home past the keeper. Esteban scored his hat trick with 8:05 left before HT, smashing it home from the left wing. With 5:27 left in the half, a timeout was called.
With 34 seconds to go, a pass went all the way through in the air, and it was a three-line pass (similar to icing in hockey). The resultant free kick from the Blizzard defensive line was slotted home for Dancer's hat trick.
Krah scored from distance on the right at 12:43 left in the third to make it 7-5. An inadvertent handball inside the area was nonetheless whistled for a penalty kick and Dancer made it 7-6 with 11:07 left in the third. Dawson Swearengen tied it with 5:17 left in the third, hard and low from the right and a Blizzard time out was called.
Orozco saved a shot with 11 seconds left.
Garcia sees a shot go high to open the Blizzard fourth. DiGrado sees a shot blocked by Mohammed. Ortiz notches from close in after a pass up to him by Esteban. 23 seconds later, Krah broke the other way and equalized. Esteban scored his 4th with 8:49 left in the game to put the Blizzard back ahead. Garcia's unassisted shot with 7:19 remaining to notch the 10th. Maldonado, from a free kick, was stopped at point-blank range by Holland.
With 3:42 left, the Raptors pulled their goalie and put Dancer in goal as a sixth attacker. Blizzard just missed a chance with the goal unguarded as Dancer plays on the edge of the defensive third.
With 41 seconds left, Dancer stepped up for a second PK, but he hit the crossbar, and Maldonado scored in the open net, with the clock down to 12 seconds.
Minnesota Blizzard 4-8 Iowa Demon Hawks
The hosts changed their starting line-up with Logan Weller and Spencer Overturf stepping in.
Demon Hawks had Rainier Hauss in goal, joined by Caique Ribeiro, Vitor Santos, Eddie Martinez, Guilherme Lopes, and Jeanderson Pereira.
It took less than a couple of mins for the scoring to be opened, Demon Hawks' Pereira nutmegging a defender in the box and spinning before putting the ball home.
With 10:30 left in the first, the Demon Hawks unleashed a shot, but it was parried by Orosco onto the roof of the net. DiGrado registered the Blizzard's first shot on target with 9:02 left in the quarter. At 8:05, a free kick was misplaced by the Blizzard. Nonetheless, in a scrappy first quarter it was the Blizzard who would strike next, Devan DiGrado smashing home a shot with 5:58 left in the period to tie the score, off an Overturf assist. At the 4 minute mark, a ricochet off the boards was smothered by Orosco. Lopes scored with 2:51 on the clock, robbing the ball from Overturf within the Blizzard defensive third before hitting the ball high and hard inside the far post. A Hubert Kopany shot was tipped onto the crossbar by Hauss to keep the lead intact. With 2:07 left, a good chance for the Blizzard was sent sailing high from a free kick on the Iowa defensive red line.
The second quarter opened with Hauss flying at full stretch to deny DiGrado a goal from an Overturf pass. With 13:30 on the second quarter clock, Santos hit the post with a shot from the right wing. Santos then took a shot which cannoned off the boards and into DiGrado for an own goal with 13:11 on the clock. With 12:59 on the clock in the second, a Blizzard free kick was deflected out of play but Kevin Ortiz would pull the Blizzard back within one with 12:37 left, from a Kopany pass. It took the Demon Hawks less than a minute to respond, Santos scoring from distance. A Blizzard chance was thwarted at 12:04 as Hauss stretched to his furthest sinew and tipped it wide. At 8:27 it was Orozco's turn to show out, tipping a ball away. Eddie Martinez slapped a fifth goal home for the Demon Hawks from the right wing, following a cross-field pass by Pereira. With 6:47 left, Overturf hit the crossbar but failed to score. At 6:20, Pereira flicked a ball into Lopes's path behind his back and it was another Demon Hawk goal.
Half-time saw Thomas Gallagher take over in goal for the Hawks. Less than a minute into the third, Santos dummied his defender and slotted the goal home to make a 7-2 lead. At 11:38, Kopany slashed a Blizzard shot high as the home side looked to make in-roads. At 9:35, Maldonado failed to finish on an Overturf pass down the gut of the Iowa defense. Arreguin hit the crossbar with a shot on the run down the right with the clock reading 8 minutes. At 5:26 in the third, the Demon Hawks had another chance to capitalise on a deflection off the end boards but no one could provide a finish. With 4:34, a counter by the Blizzard was smothered by a flying slide tackle by Gallagher. With 2 minutes left in the third, Danny Burgos took over as GK for the Blizzard. Virtually his first action was to block a Demon Hawk shot on the line.
Blizzard had a shot repelled by Gallagher with 35 seconds left in the quarter but with 30 seconds left, the Blizzard went on the power play after the Demon Hawks' Robert Amaro was blue-carded for reckless play, fouling DiGrado as the Blizzard player was running towards their goal with a full head of steam - albeit with three covering Demon Hawks. Weirdly, with 4 seconds left on the clock, a free kick was awarded to the Blizzard in the corner of the Iowa offensive zone, but then - with everyone positioned for the free kick - the horn went off for the end of the quarter, and the free kick was seemingly nullified. Nonetheless, the Blizzard entered the fourth on the power play.
The first action of the final quarter was DiGrado missing off the post with officially no time elapsed. With the power play progressing, a free kick for the Blizzard found its way to DiGrado, who inexplicably caught the ball with only the underside of his boot and sent it squirming slowly into the penalty area where it was easily cleared. At 13:50 in the fourth, a snap shot from the Blizzard was batted away by Gallagher. Alejandro Corona saw his own shot blocked by Burgos in the Blizzard net. With 12:45 left, the Demon Hawks, on the front foot, drove the ball twice off the woodwork and a conbination of posts, crossbars and Burgos kept the Demon Hawks from adding. Instead, it was Blizzard who took the next shot, with 9:18 left, Kopany taking a speculative shot from the left wing, safely pouched by the goalie. The Demon Hawks then hit the post twice in a minute with 8:50 left. With 7:28 left in the game, Navia went to the penalty box for picking up his fourth foul of the game, and the Demon Hawks were on the power play. Pereira dummies a shot and turns his defender, instead laying the ball off to Junior Gutierres in front of goal, with 5:58 left, to make it 8-2. However, the Blizzard took less than 30 seconds to fire back, Devan DiGrado bouncing the ball home with 5:40 left. What had been a feisty match in general degenerated to chaos at the end, when, despite an apparent Blizzard foul, Demon Hawks' Corona was given a straight red card for indecent language with 3:06 left in the game. With Blizzard already on the power play, Pereira ran into the back of Maldonado while the Blizzard player was winding up for a shot just outside the penalty area, and then Pereira kicked Maldonado in the face while he was on the ground. Pereira went into the penalty box, and the free kick was repelled by Gallagher. Nonetheless, the 5-on-3 advantage told, and Arreguin scored off his own rebound with 1:32 left in the quarter. Demon Hawks flipped the ball down the carpet for an open net goal, but time has expired - on the quarter, on the game, and on the Blizzard's indoor season.
We will have a full photo gallery soon.
Congratulations to the undefeated teams in the MASL2 playoffs, Harrisburg Heat and Iowa Demon Hawks.
The next time the Blizzard play will be a road game against the Midwest Premier League's Chicago House AC in the USASA Amateur Cup Region II Qualifying Round 2 next Sunday. Stay tuned to our social media for an update on the exact timing and a full roundup of that match will be on this site.
