Minnesota Wild Recall John Curry

The Minnesota Wild have been just beaten up repeatedly by illness this season. First the mumps decimated the blue line and now a stomach bug (using that phrase loosely, it’s not been disclosed exactly what’s going on) has kept Jared Spurgeon out of the lineup, then Darcy Kuemper got sick just before the start of the game yesterday, giving Niklas Backstrom a surprise start. After the game, Coach Mike Yeo said that Backstrom too has the stomach bug.

The team has announced that they’re hoping to give Backstrom the start on Wednesday night against Boston, but that’s no guarantee. It does appear to be a guarantee that Kuemper won’t be in the lineup as they’ve recalled goaltender John Curry from the Iowa Wild today, who will be the team’s go-to netminder if Backstrom is unable to play.

This would be Curry’s second career start for the Wild and make it the second season in a row where Curry has started games at the ECHL, AHL, and NHL level after not playing a NHL game since the 2009-10 season for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Curry was pulled out of Iowa’s game last night following the second period, it would seem, once the team knew that Kuemper wouldn’t be involved in Wednesday’s game. At that point in the game Curry had stopped 33 of 34 shots and wound up earning second star of the game even though he didn’t finish the game. (Johan Gustafsson came in and stopped 25 fo 25 shots in the third to earn first star of the game.)

It was mentioned in our recap of yesterday’s Iowa game, but one of those 33 saves was worthy of save of the year consideration. Watch that one below starting at the 44-second mark.

Curry is 4-6-0 this season with a 3.02 goals against average and a .911 save percentage. He also spent a little time this season with the Quad City Mallards of the ECHL when Josh Harding was sent down to Iowa.

Curry’s call-up and the illness of both Backstrom and Kuemper again casts a light on Harding’s ongoing struggles. In his second start for Iowa he was pulled after the second period with what was initially speculated to be an injury, but was later reported to be dehydration related to multiple sclerosis. He still hasn’t returned to the ice since then.

This would have been a great opportunity for Harding to assert himself into the NHL roster, but, as it has been going, Harding can’t seem to catch a break at all. Still wishing him a speedy recovery and hoping that we’ll see him back on the ice in Des Moines soon.