Iowa Wild Beat Rockford in Return From Holiday Break
The Iowa Wild returned from the holiday break on Friday to play a Rockford IceHogs team off to their best start in team history, but without assistant coach Mark Osiecki who is coaching the US team at the World Junior Hockey Championships. (He’s coaching the Wild’s 2014 first round draft pick Alex Tuch, who scored yesterday.)
The Wild gave the net to John Curry, his first start in Iowa since December 16. Curry was passed over a couple times in favor of Johan Gustafsson and was actually pulled in the game on the 16th after making 33 stops because the Wild discovered that Darcy Kuemper was too ill to play the following night and the team would need Curry in St. Paul as insurance.
The Wild got on the board first with Tyler Graovac grabbing a goal on the power play. The IceHogs failed to get the puck out of the zone on a couple opportunities before the puck bounced to Graovac near the dots and he fired it past veteran netminder Michael Leighton. Graovac would lead the team with five shots on the night.
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Leighton got the start over Scott Darling, who has been on fire at all levels this season. He has a .928 SV% at the AHL level through 13 games this season and a .937 SV% with the Chicago Blackhawks through seven games this season.
Graovac’s goal was his team-leading 11th goal. The closest to him is Zack Mitchell with seven goals. Assists on that power play tally went to Michael Keranen and Jonathon Blum. Keranen would get his 17th and 18th assists of the season, the high-water mark for the team.
About half way through the second the IceHogs would tie the game on a shorthanded goal from Chicago’s top prospect, Teuvo Teravainen. That would be the only time the IceHogs got one past Curry, despite outshooting the Wild 38 to 24.
Six minutes later Jordan Schroeder would give the lead back to the Wild on a beauty of a goal off a Mathew Dumba shot from the point.
That goal would stand as the game-winner at the end of the day, even though the Wild only managed to get four shots to Rockford’s 11 in the third period.
The Wild improve to 10-18-1-1 on the season for a total of 22 points. That puts Iowa just two points from passing the Norfolk Admirals to pass along the title of last place in the AHL. They’re also just three points back from the Rochester Americans and Charlotte Checkers to pull themselves out of the basement of the Western Conference.
The Wild’s next match is Saturday night against the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Watch the highlights here: