Iowa Wild Beat Chicago Wolves 5-1
The Iowa Wild started off their weekend back-to-back against the Chicago Wolves — their final games before Christmas break — with a bang, downing the Wolves 5-1. Going into Saturday’s game the 14-10-3 Wolves sat in the midst of a dogfight in the Midwest Division, a division that today features the Rockford IceHogs in first place with 40 points, followed by four teams tied with 31 points.
In atypical fashion the Wild jumped out to an early lead on a goal by Brett Sutter just 8:39 into the contest. For Sutter, who was reassigned to Iowa this week following two games in the NHL, that was his sixth goal and 15th point of the season.
Before the end of the first period, the Wild would extend their lead on the first of two goals from Jason Gregoire, with assists going to Michael Keranen and Alex Gudbranson. Johan Gustafsson stopped all eight shots he faced in the first to have Iowa entering the second period with a 2-0 lead.
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In the second Tyler Graovac would net his first of two on the night, registering his team-leading ninth and tenth goals of the year. Graovac’s first came off an odd bounce following Wolves goaltender Matt Climie misplaying the puck off an odd bounce.
That gave the Wild a solid 3-0 lead, but a little over halfway through the second period the Wolves would finally solve Gustafsson after Mathieu Brodeur posted his third goal of the year, cutting the Iowa lead to two.
From that point on the Wild would own the game. Gregoire potted his second of the night late in the second and Graovac would add a power play marker in a third period where Iowa allowed the Wolves to take only four shots. Graovac’s goal went in following another strange bounce that saw the puck shoot up in the air and land behind Climie.
Iowa converted on the second of their power play chances for the night. The first attempt came on a penalty to Benn Ferriero, who Wild fans may recognize from his 12-day stint with the Wild in the summer of 2013. He never suited up for the organization at any level, but was technically a prospect for nearly two weeks.
Jordan Schroeder, Danny Syvret, Zack Phillips and Matt Dumba all added assists, and Michael Keranen added a pair.
Gustafsson stopped 24 of 25 shots he faced on the net. He made a really big save on a breakaway in the second that kept the game from becoming a tight affair. All-in-all, following some patchy play, Gustafsson has been solid lately. In his last four starts he’s had save percentages of .917, .960, 1.00, and .933. His performances lately ought to be heartening to the organization who has watched Niklas Backstrom and Darcy Kuemper be frighteningly terrible this season.
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