Iowa Wild Weekly Report: January 22nd

The Iowa Wild played 3 games in 3 nights last weekend, which is a tough slog. They even had travel, with the first game in Rockford and the final two in Des Moines. They started the weekend much the way they start many weeks, by not scoring any goals. Curry got hit pretty hard in the first period, prompting a fight between Kurtis Gabriel and Ryan Schnell. After Curry gave up 3 goals on 10 shots, Torchetti pulled him and put Gustafsson in goal. Gustafsson only gave up 1 goal on 16 shots in the second half of the game.

Lake Erie dueled the Wild for the 2 final games of the weekend. The Monsters also had to travel to Des Moines after playing on Friday.  In goal for Lake Erie was Reto Berra, who scored an empty net goal in their Friday night game versus the Chicago Wolves. The Wild started Curry as he had played less than half the game on Friday. Once again, Kurtis Gabriel started off the game with a fight. But the Iowa Wild started off the scoring in this game, when Danny Syvret scored with a laser shot from the point. Michael Keranen added to his season scoring total, scoring a goal after shrugging off a defender and taking the puck all the way around the net. Next, defenseman Brad Richard scored his first AHL goal to give the Wild a 3 to 0 lead. On the final Iowa goal of the game Berra hit the puck in the air in a play that looked like a volleyball set. Stu Bickel slapped the goal into the net through the chaos. Lake Erie would get their only goal of the night on a 3 on 2. Rare for the Iowa Wild, the defense scored 3 out of the 4 Wild goals on Saturday night.

On Sunday, the Wild and the Monsters reconvened for another game. Berra was distracted by a lot of traffic on Iowa's first goal, scored just 35 seconds in by Jason Gregoire from Schroeder and Bulmer. Two minutes later, Marc Hagel scored an even strength marker for his eighth goal of the season. In an attempt to shift momentum, Monsters defenseman Duncan Siemens started a fight with Alex Gudbranson. Lake Erie did score a goal less than 30 seconds later. After the frantic first period start, the Wild held a one goal lead until the second period when Jonathon Blum ripped a power play goal from Syvret and Brassart. But Lake Erie tied the game, after a second period even strength goal and a third period power play goal. The game would not need a shootout though because Tyler Graovac earned an overtime penalty shot, and he made it count.

News & Notes

• Dumba was sent back to the AHL so that he could participate in the AHL All-Star Weekend festivities taking place this weekend in Utica. The Minnesota Wild only have 6 defensemen on their roster, so someone will probably be recalled after the break.
• The Iowa Wild signed forward Ruslan Fedotenko to a PTO. He played last season in the KHL and scored 7 goals and 10 assists in 46 games.
• Danny Syvret starred in a couple of hockey tricks videos, one where he shoots the puck from the upper deck and also a stickhandling video.
• Jonathon Blum and Jordan Schroeder were returned to the AHL this week and both played in Sunday's overtime victory.