Iowa Wild Crushed By Grand Rapids Griffins
The Iowa Wild kicked of the first night of a three-in-three by losing their fourth straight game. Even the signing of veteran forward Ruslan Fedotenko and the reassignment of Darcy Kuemper to Iowa couldn’t help the Wild stay in Thursday’s game against the Grand Rapids Griffins.
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Characteristic of many recent losses, this one was frustrating. By the end of the second period the Wild were being outshot just 28-25 and had outshot Grand Rapids in the second 20-10, but they trailed by five. Four of those goals came on the power play. Three of those power play goals were Teemu Pulkkinen finishing up a hat trick just 1:35 into the second period.
Kuemper allowed all five of those goals, garnering a save percentage of .821 before the net was given to John Curry to start the third, a period where the Wild again outshot the Griffins, 13-10. Curry allowed one goal on ten shots, bringing the total damage on the night to six.
Despite too many goals on too few shots to start the game — not to mention that the first power play goal came off a penalty to Kuemper himself — the 6-0 loss was a team effort with the Wild unable to solve Griffins netminder Jared Coreau on 38 shots.
Tyler Graovac, Jonathon Blum, Justin Falk, Michael Keranen, Marc Hagl, and Brett Bulmer shared the team lead in shots with four a piece. In more dubious honors Brad Richard, Bulmer, Stephane Veilleux, Brett Sutter, and Falk all finished a minus-2, meaning that complete line was on the ice for both of the Griffins’ even strength goals.
The game saw not only Fedotenko’s Wild debut — he had one shot — but the return of Raphael Bussieres from the Alaska Aces. Bussieres also logged a single shot.
Iowa continues to sit at the bottom of the AHL with a record of 15-27-1-1. They’re on pace to have fewer points than last season, when they also finished last in the AHL with a record of 27-36-7-6.
Iowa continues their three-in-three tonight in Des Moines against the Hamilton Bulldogs. They’ll play the Bulldogs again on Saturday.