Iowa Wild Sweep Weekend Meeting With Monsters

We’re going to call it a winning a streak.

The Iowa Wild beat the Lake Eerie Monsters two nights in a row in Cleveland, with Saturday’s result a 3-2 decision in regulation.

For the second night in a row, the Wild went with John Curry in net. The Monsters went with Calvin Pickard for the second night in a row as well.

Like in Friday’s game, both teams came out of the first period without a goal. And like in Friday’s game, the Wild scored under a minute into the second period. Collin Bowman came up big with an unassisted power play goal for Iowa. That’s the first goal of his AHL career. He also wound up leading the team in shots on the night with five.

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Also like Friday’s game, the Monsters scored next and the goal was scored by Joey Hishon.

The similiarities end there though, because Iowa got the lead back before the end of the second period with an incredible goal from Tyler Graovac with assists going to his new linemates Michael Keranen and Kurtis Gabriel. That helps Graovac get back on track a bit. He remains Iowa’s leading scorer, but he’s had a slow February, posting an eight-game stretch without a point and a ten-game stretch without a goal. However, he has two goals and three assists over the last five games.

Here’s a replay of that goal:

The Monsters’ Stefan Elliott would even things out again at the start of the third. It looked as though the teams could head to overtime for the second night in a row, but 15:21 into the third period Brett Sutter buried one past Pickard with assists going to Marc Hagel and Zack Mitchell.

That would stand as the game-winner. Iowa crosses the 20-win threshold and the Monsters lose their fourth straight.