Iowa Wild Score Late To Beat Charlotte Checkers 4-3

The Iowa Wild were the only game on the AHL slate Monday night as they finished their two-game road trip to Charlotte. The Checkers are former team of Brett Sutter, who got a warm welcome with lots of signs and a video tribute on Saturday.

The Wild dropped Saturday’s decision 2-1, getting Stephane Veilleux‘s first goal of the year and then being unable to connect for the equalizer, despite firing 28 shots on net.

Monday’s game was a different story, with the tables turning back and forth a number of times before the Wild closed out the Checkers for their sixth win of the season.

Charlotte opened the scoring just 59 seconds into the game with a wide angle shot from Justin Shugg beating John Curry high. But Iowa got an equalizer before the end of the first. Mathew Dumba, who finished a team-high plus-4 on the night, grabbed his second goal in three games with assists to Jonathon Blum and Tyler Graovac. Dumba’s three-game run with Iowa is his first trek down to the Iowa Wild, though not his first in the AHL. He played three games for the Houston Aeros in the 2012-13 season.

Just over a minute into the second period Graovac tallied on the break iwht a feed from Zack Mitchell, giving the Wild their first lead of the game at 2-1.

But before the second period was out veteran winger Chad LaRose would bring the game back to even for the Checkers.

The third period featured a flurry of goals including Carter Sandlak putting the Checkers on top once again. But that was followed shortly by a goal from Blum, who grabbed a Graovac rebound after Graovac drove the net hard from the corner. Marc Hagel grabbed the secondary assist on that goal, which tied it up at three all.

Less than three minutes after the Blum goal, Jason Gregoire, playing just his fourth game since getting called up from the Alaska Aces, scored the go-ahead goal with a nifty assist going to Dumba.

That come-from-behind win was big for the Baby Wild, having won just two of their last nine games as they continue to sit at the bottom of the AHL. They’re now within four points of the Charlotte Checkers, Toronto Marlies, and Norfolk Admirals, all of who have 18 points.

Watch the highlights from Monday’s game here:

Notes:
The Iowa Wild are now 6-15-1-1. John Curry got the win, bringing his season record to 2-5-0-1 with a .897 save percentage and 3.38 goals against average.

Graovac tied Michael Keranen for the lead in assists on the team with 12 and cemented his goal lead, moving up to eight total.

Dumba has three points in three games since joining Iowa.

Jordan Schroeder missed Monday’s game after blocking a shot that hobbled him in Saturday’s game, according to Joe O’Donnell.

Read my piece from earlier today on why Graovac deserves a shot at the NHL. You should also give Andrew’s feature profile of Graovac from earlier in the season.