Iowa Wild Beat the Milwaukee Admirals in Overtime

With John Curry backing up Darcy Kuemper in the NHL, Johan Gustafsson got the net for the Iowa Wild Monday night as the team took on the Milwaukee Admirals in Des Moines.

Though no one scored in the first, Iowa was outshot in the first 14 to five. Gustafsson stood tall and kept Iowa in the game.

Milwaukee opened the scoring in the second on a power play goal by Viktor Arvidsson. Milwaukee outshot Iowa in the second 12 to nine, continuing their dominance. It was looking rough for Iowa, who was coming off a 9-2 loss in their last game.

In addition to Curry, the Wild were also without leading scorer Tyler Graovac and Brett Sutter due to NHL call-ups.

But 4:16 into the third period the Wild started their rally in a period where the Wild would outshooting the Admirals 12 to six. Zack Mitchell got the team going with a goal on assists from Marc Hagel and Matt Dumba. Mitchell beat Marek Mazanec, who you might recognize from a 25-game stint with the Predators last season when Pekka Rinne went out with an infection in his hip.

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Arvidsson netted his second of the net just three minutes later, giving the Admirals a 2-1 lead.

That 2-1 lead would hold until 16:16 of the third when Jordan Schroeder netted a power play goal from Jonathon Blum and Michael Keranen.

That huge goal shifted the momentum and sent the game to overtime.

1:19 into the overtime period, Viktor Stalberg (who the Predators waived recently) was called for a holding penalty. That penalty lead to Schroeder’s second of the night off a feed from defenseman Danny Syvret and Dumba.

The overtime win puts the Wild just one point from catching the Norfolk Admirals and Rochester Americans, meaning the Wild could soon dig themselves out of the basement of the league that they’ve called home for a long while now.

Gustafsson stopped 30 of 32 shots for a nice bounce back game, earning him the number three star of the game. Schroeder naturally took the top honors after scoring the tying and game-winning goals. Schroeder now has four goals over his last four games.

Keranen’s assist bumps him ahead of Graovac for the team lead in points. He has five goals and 20 assists in 32 games. He has eight assists in his last six games.

Dumba had two assists on the night, giving him three goals and eight assists through 12 AHL games this season.

Watch coach John Torchetti and Jordan Schroeder’s post-game comments, plus a couple highlights below.

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