Iowa earns first home win of the season

DES MOINES — After the season opener at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines for the Iowa Wild, coach John Torchetti said that they wanted to have around a .700 winning percentage at home this year. After losing each of their first three home games of the 2015-16 campaign, Iowa took its first step towards that on Saturday, Oct. 24 against the Texas Stars.

The Wild got their first win on their home ice and their second overall of the season with a 3-2 victory over the visiting Stars.

Torchetti said that it means “everything” to be able to win at home in front of the hometown fans.

“It’s for our fans,” said Torchetti. “This is what we play hockey for. You play for your fans and they deserve it. We could easily have three wins at home by now but we are what we are and we had to realize that and we’ve just got to keep winning and competing and once we get healthier we’re going to be a really good team and I think our fans are going to be happy with the product.”

The Wild followed the win up the next afternoon in a rematch with the Stars at Wells Fargo Arena with a 4-1 loss and saw their record drop to 2-4-1-1 (6 points).

One thing that has not struggled for Iowa so far this year is the goaltending between Leland Irving and Jeremy Smith. Smith, who is on loan from the Boston Bruins has a save percentage of .919 so far this year while Irving, who is also in his first year with Iowa, is fourth in the AHL with a .951 save percentage and allows 1.60 goals per game on average, fifth-best in the league.

Irving says it’s an extra advantage for the Wild having two goalies who are performing well as they had a back-to-back last weekend and will have three games in three nights this coming weekend.

“That’s the nice things about having two goalies that are playing well is not often do you get back-to-backs and you’re able to be fresh pretty much every time you step on the ice so I think that’s an advantage for our team for sure,” said Irving.

Irving picked up the win in Saturday’s contest against the Stars, stopping 29-of-31 Texas shots while Smith took the loss in Sunday’s game, stopping 37-of-41 Texas shots.

“Leland (Irving) really battled and he had to work because they were shooting from everywhere and you know that takes a wear and tear on you,” said Torchetti of Irving’s performance on Saturday night. “He did a great job. He made some big saves with some challenging plays.”

A player who stood out on the offensive side last weekend was Christoph Bertschy, who is in his first year as an AHL player. Bertschy had three assists through two games this weekend and leads the team with six points (2 goals, 4 assists) so far this year.

His first assist of the weekend came in the last minute of the first period against Texas on Saturday night. He stole the puck from a Texas player, made a pass to the slot and Iowa defenseman Zach Palmquist fired the one-timer home.

With the momentum Bertschy helped Iowa grab at the end of the period, Michael Keranen was awarded a penalty shot with no time left on the clock after being dragged down on a breakaway. He scored and the Wild took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

Bertschy notched his second assist of the night when he made a pass to Jordan Schroeder, who fired a one-timer into the net on the power play to give the Wild a 3-2 lead in the third period.

“When you finish a period like that, I mean, of course you get some confidence in the locker room,” said Bertschy. “So we try to keep on going hard and I think we did good.”

The Wild, who are in fifth place in the Central Division with the Chicago Wolves and the Lake Erie Monsters tied for first place at 3-1-0-1.

Iowa will play three games against two Central Division opponents this Friday through Sunday. They will travel on Friday to take on the Rockford Ice Hogs on Friday and then they will host Milwaukee in Des Moines on Saturday and Sunday.

Friday’s game at Rockford and Saturday’s game against Milwaukee begin at 7 p.m. while Sunday’s rematch against Milwaukee begins at 5 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena.

The post Wild farm report appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Ex-Gopher quickly picks up first pro goal but Wild get off to 0-2 start

DES MOINES — In 39 games for the University of Minnesota last season, defenseman Mike Reilly had six goals. After just one game for the Iowa Wild, he already had one under his belt.

In the second period of his American Hockey League debut on Saturday, Oct. 10, the rookie defenseman scored on the power play to cut the Charlotte Checkers’ lead to 2-1 with 6:49 until the break. After passing back and forth a little with second-year pro and fellow defenseman Gustav Olofsson, Reilly fired a slapshot from the point and the puck went under the blocker of Charlotte goaltender Drew MacIntyre.

Reilly, who hails from Chanhassen, Minn., said that they hadn’t worked on the power play very much before Iowa’s first game of the season.

“It’s a little bit natural for me to go on the power play and move the puck around,” Reilly said. “Obviously you’re playing with great players and Olofsson gave me a nice pass there and (I was) just trying to get it through to the net.”

Two of his six goals and team-leading 42 points last season were power play goals for the Golden Gophers. He also led Minnesota with 116 shots on goal last year.

Reilly said that it has “been a little bit of an adjustment” getting used to the professional game so far but he knew it would be a little bit of a challenge coming out of college.

“Just like any first-year pro defenseman, it’s going to be a little bit of a transition,” Reilly said. “Going to main camp with the (Minnesota) Wild and getting some games up there too, I think it helped me a lot.”

During the preseason Reilly saw action against Buffalo in St. Paul, at Winnepeg and against Winnepeg at home. Against Winnipeg in St. Paul he logged 17:32 of ice time, including 3:33 on the power play, had two shots on goal, a plus-2 rating and two penalty minutes.

Iowa head coach John Torchetti said Reilly, a 2011 fourth-round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Olofsson, who hasn’t played since the beginning of last year due to injury, met his expectations in the first game of the season.

“I thought that Reilly and Olofsson, for their first game, they played really well,” Torchetti said. “Olofsson hasn’t played in a year and it was Reilly’s first pro game so they did a good job. You know, they’re going to get better and they’re going to be puck-moving defensemen.

“We’re going to get better in that aspect but I think, overall, we only had about five or six guys really playing the fast-paced game.”

While Reilly made a splash in the season opener against Charlotte with his first goal of his professional career, Iowa as a team didn’t fare so well as they dug themselves into a 2-1 hole in the first period and eventually lost 4-1 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

The first Charlotte goal came just 4:57 into the new season when Charlotte’s Tyler Ganly flipped the puck high into the air from the neutral zone and Sergey Tolchinsky found it behind the Iowa defense and put it past Iowa goaltender Jeremy Smith.

The second goal came just two minutes later when Reilly wound up for a slap shot, but his stick broke on the windup, leading Charlotte’s Brock McGinn with a breakaway. He fired a wrist shot past Smith to give the Checkers a 2-0 lead.

After the season opener Torchetti said the difference between the teams was Iowa didn’t come out prepared, but admitted that the first two goals by Charlotte were “tough.”

“One was off a broken stick, not much you can do, and the other was on a flipped puck and we have to take stick-on-puck and then the body but didn’t so that’s two goals I know we can fix there,” Torchetti said.

He said no adjustments were made after the first period, but that they just needed to “compete” better.

“We didn’t compete,” Torchetti said. “I’ve got to do a better job, I guess, right off the bat. We shouldn’t have to worry competing first night at home, that’s for sure.”

In the second game of the home stand on Sunday, Iowa kept things much closer as they were tied 1-1 after the first period and had a 4-1 lead 3:31 into the third period. The Checkers came back, however, and eventually won the game 5-4 in a shootout leaving Iowa still winless after two games this season.

Iowa forward Brady Brassart had two goals and one assist, Christoph Bertschy had one goal and one assist and Jordan Schroeder, who was reassigned to Iowa for the second game, had one goal. Veteran forward Ruslan Fedotenko had two assists in the game and Olofsson and Michael Keranen had one each.

Torchetti emphasized that they have to play better at home this year than they did last year. Iowa was just 10-26-1-1 in 38 games at home last season.

“Our first 14 out of 19 are at home, so we’ve got to make sure we have almost a .700 winning percentage at home,” Torchetti said.

Smith made his Iowa Wild debut last weekend, starting both games. He has allowed eight goals so far and has stopped 79-of-87 shots for a .908 save percentage.

The Wild continue the season this Friday and Saturday night as they hit the road for Cleveland to take on the Lake Erie Monsters. After that the Wild return home for a Tuesday night game against the Milwaukee Admirals and then hit the road again for a game at Rockford the next night.

The post Reilly scores in Iowa debut appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota State All-American transitioning to pro hockey in Iowa

DES MOINES — Late in the season as college hockey players see their seasons and collegiate careers come to an end, many of them get an opportunity to show what they can do in the professional ranks. One of those players is Minnesota native Zach Palmquist, who made his American Hockey League debut on April 3 for the Iowa Wild.

The South St. Paul native didn’t waste any time making an impact on his new team, notching an assist in his first game, a 6-0 win over the Rochester Americans in Des Moines. The win was the first on home ice for the Wild since Jan. 18, snapping a 14-game home losing streak.

Iowa coach John Torchetti said Palmquist gets back and gets to the puck on defense quick, but will be able to make an impact on the offensive side of the puck as well.

“He’s what we need,” Torchetti said. “We need a good puck-moving defenseman. So far he’s played pretty good and he’s going to have to learn the little things in d-zone coverage that most players have to. He’s going to join the rush, activate our rush so we’re four up and bring a little more speed to our breakouts.”

Palmquist said that it was “nice” to be able to contribute on the scoreboard with an assist in his professional debut. He had the secondary assist on the last goal of the game, which was scored by Joel Choinard and also assisted by Michael Keranen.

“The team played well that night and before the game a lot of the guys just said ‘just play your game and have fun,'” Palmquist said. “So that’s what I try to do out there and any way I can try to contribute I’m going to try to do my best and give the guys my best effort every night.”

Palmquist joins the Wild organization after finishing up a four-year collegiate career at Minnesota State University in Mankato where he played 160 games and tallied 96 points (25 goals, 71 assists), including a career-high 29 points (8 goals, 21 assists) his senior season. He also had 107 penalty minutes in four seasons.

The Mavericks entered the NCAA Tournament this season as the No. 1 overall seed, but were upset by Rochester Institute of Technology 2-1 in the first round.

Palmquist tallied 18 points (4 goals, 14 assists) and a minus-18 rating in 59 games his third and final season  with the Waterloo Black Hawks of the United States Hockey League before heading to Mankato where the coaching Minnesota State staff turned him into more of a two-way player which prepared him a lot for his shot in the AHL.

“It elevated my game each year,” Palmquist said. “I think I was a one-dimensional player going into Minnesota State and I think I grew into more of a two-way player … played more of a defensive role going into my junior, senior year. Also being that offensive defenseman that I like to be too, but I think I improved and the coaches helped me a lot to become a better defensive player and be a plus player every night too, which is big in today’s game.”‘

Palmquist said he and his father, Dave, who coaches the girls’ varsity hockey team at South St. Paul, used to attend Minnesota Wild games when he was a kid and that he’s been a fan since the team started playing in St. Paul in 2000.

“It’s been fun watching them grow up and it’s just been such a dream come true to actually be in the organization now,” said Palmquist.

As far as what Torchetti wants him to accomplish in the last few games of this season, he said it’s about getting the system down fundamentally.

“I think that we play a different type of breakout system and it’s a little difficult,” Torchetti said. “We play more of a three-man system on the breakout and if you’re not used to it, it’s something you’ve got to get used to and he’s a good enough skater that it should be an easy transition for him, so that’s one good thing that I’ve noticed.”

Torchetti said that Palmquist getting some games in at the end of this season is like a “pre-training camp” and will help him become more detailed as he trains in the summer for next season.

Seeing progress late

The Wild have struggled all season long as their 23-46-2-2 (50 points) record indicates and even went 14 straight games without a win on home ice between Jan. 18 and April 3. But in their most recent four-game homestand, which wrapped up Friday, Iowa won two games in shutout fashion.

The Wild beat the Rochester Americans 6-0 April 3 before losing 6-4 to the Texas Stars April 7. They fell again April 9 5-3 to the Rockford Ice Hogs before defeating the Oklahoma City Barons 4-0 Friday.

The two shutouts were just the second and third of the season for the Wild and the first two for Iowa goaltender John Curry.

“I think the team’s just been playing better,” Curry said. “It’s been a little up and down and obviously the results haven’t been as consistent enough but I think that in many pictures of every game, we’re doing things better. It’s just a matter of putting it together for 60 minutes and I thought that was the difference tonight.”

With wins like the one’s they’ve had on the last homestand, Curry said it feels really good, even though in the end it “doesn’t really mean much.”

“We’ve had a tough year and we’re not in a position for these points to really matter, but it’s been stressful and … there’s not any guys in that room that don’t take this seriously so the losses hurt and we’ve had a lot of them,” Curry said. “So to have a win, to have success and hopefully we have more down the line, it does feel good and it builds the confidence in the young players and the old players heading into the summer and the offseason.”

Iowa has also seen improvement on the other side of the puck. For the season the Wild have averaged 2.30 goals per game but in that last homestand, they scored 4.25 goals per game.

“I think we’re just paying a little more attention to detail, just trying to execute our game plan a little more, we want to shoot the puck a lot and it’s working out,” Iowa rookie Zack Mitchell said after tallying a goal and an assist against Oklahoma City on Friday.

Getting more shots on goal and pucks to the net has been a point of emphasis for the Wild recently, said Mitchell.

“It’s a big part of the game,” said Mitchell. “You watch all the best NHL teams, they all shoot the puck a lot and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Iowa had 28 shots on goal Friday against the Barons.

The Wild will play their final home game Tuesday when they host the Toronto Marlies at Wells Fargo Arena at 7:05 p.m. before wrapping up the regular season on Friday and Saturday at Oklahoma City against the Barons.

The post Palmquist takes his game to next level appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Iowa Wild top scorer developing into a consistent threat

DES MOINES, IOWA — What does it take for a second-year player like Iowa Wild forward Tyler Graovac to break out of the American Hockey League and in the National Hockey League?

Consistency, according to Wild coach John Torchetti, is the number one thing that Graovac needs to work on while he is in the AHL.

“It’s my job just to keep making sure that we’re pushing them in the right direction and making sure that he’s ready,” Torchetti said.

Torchetti stressed the importance of Graovac needing to be ready to go in case they need him in Minnesota, where they are in the thick of a playoff race, trying to hold on to a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.

“He’s got to be ready to go if they call him up and he’s got to just fit into the link on the chain and keep the chain moving and he’s got to be ready to be consistent at that,” Torchetti said. “That’s a playoff pace so that’s a big badge of honor for us as a coaching staff is making sure that when the guys are called up that they’re ready to be consistent for [Minnesota coach Mike Yeo] and the staff up there.”

Graovac said that improving consistency is also the number one thing that Minnesota wanted from him coming into this season.

“Every game, every day, every practice, you’ve got to be consistent with your style of play,” said Graovac. “You’ve got to be consistent off the ice with your eating habits, your sleeping habits and that’s just going to go into the game. What you do off the ice is going to help you on the ice.”

In his second year in the AHL, Graovac came in with a different mindset and has improved his offensive numbers. During the 2013-14 season, his rookie year after playing five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, he notched 25 points (12 goals, 13 assists) in 64 games, but this season he is already up to 41 points (20 goals, 21 assists) in just 60 games.

Graovac said that a part of the new mindset is wanting to be a bigger difference maker in year two than in year one with Iowa.

“Last year I was kind of more of a rookie and in my first year in the league and just trying to be a sponge and now this year I’m just doing what I can, taking it and running with it.”

Graovac said he’s getting more opportunities this year, playing on the first and second lines. Last year he played a lot with the fourth line to begin the season and had to wait his turn for a chance with one of the top two units.

Recently Graovac has been skating on the top line with rookies Zack Mitchell and Michael Keranen. Graovac and Keranen are the top two scorers on the team as Keranen has 34 points (9 goals, 25 assists) while Mitchell is second on the team in goals with 15 so far this season.

Getting the opportunity to play on the top unit for Iowa this year has helped Graovac gain confidence and he said it’s been a big difference this year.

“When a coach throws you on the ice for the last minute of a game, first line power play, to take that faceoff or PK, that just gives you a whole lot of confidence knowing that he has confidence in you,” Graovac said. “That’s the biggest difference for me … I definitely get confident when you’re the first-line center on the board. That brings a lot of confidence for anybody.”

In the summer leading up to this season, Graovac said that his goal was to get a chance to get called up to the NHL and play with the Minnesota Wild. He has accomplished that goal near the end of 2014, playing three games for Minnesota between Dec. 29, 2014 and Jan. 2, 2015.

He didn’t tally any points for Minnesota in short stint with the parent club, but had 27:40 of playing time and had one shot on goal against Winnepeg on Dec. 29 and three shots on goal against Columbus on Dec. 31, both games away from St. Paul.

He said that he “didn’t expect it to be what it was” when playing in the NHL for the first time and that it was hard to adjust when he made the move back to Iowa.

“Up there it’s a lot more positional play and guys have great sticks and are strong on the puck,” said Graovac. “Down here it’s a little more running around and more ice is available up there.

“It was a great moment for me when I went up there. I had so much fun and I’m hoping to be up there soon.”

Iowa has 12 games left in the regular season and Minnesota has 10 games left. Iowa is in last place in the AHL while Minnesota currently holds the top Wild Card spot and has a five-point cushion in the playoff race.

The post Graovac headed in the right direction appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Iowa rookie gaining confidence as team continues to struggle

DES MOINES, IOWA – Things keep getting worse for the Iowa Wild as they have found themselves on the wrong end of five-straight games and nine of the last ten and are in last place in the Western Conference with just 36 points (17-34-1-1) through 53 games.

If the Wild aren’t having problems putting the puck in the net, they are having troubles keeping the puck out of their own net and that was apparent in their most recent 3-game homestand last Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, where they lost all three games.

They struggled to score in the first two games as they lost to the defending Calder Cup Champion Texas Stars 3-1 on Friday and 2-0 on Saturday in front of 9,107 fans. Tough guy Kurtis Gabriel scored 2-of-3 Iowa goals on Sunday, but the Wild still fell 5-3 to the Western-Conference leading Oklahoma City Barons.

“I’ve never seen a team find a way to lose a game the way we have,” Iowa coach John Torchetti said.

Gabriel said that since Torchetti became the coach earlier this season, he has preached a “shooting mentality” to help get them through the scoring troubles they had in the four games prior to Sundays game. In those four games, the Wild didn’t score more than one goal.

“You look at that team there (Oklahoma City). They shoot the puck a ton,” said Gabriel. “Their power play, they just get it up top and shoot it. They’re eighth in the league in power play, they shoot the puck. Rockford shoots the puck, they win games. We need to be outshooting teams every night and that’s what it’s going to take to win.”

The Wild led Sunday’s game three different times and had several chances to regain the lead or tie it up in the third period, including a breakaway by Gabriel that gave him a chance to record the first-ever Iowa Wild hat trick. Gabriel’s shot was stopped by Oklahoma City goalie Laurent Brossoit.

“I’d love to tell you I had the answer but we’ve got to be harder to play against,” said Torchetti. “The goals that we’ve given up, the puck is on our stick, our partner’s open and that’s it … You’ve got to execute when they game’s on the line.”

Gabriel, a rookie from Newmarket, Ontario, has been known more for his ability as a fighter than a goalscorer, but in Sundays game, he showed both abilities as he fought once and scored twice in the first period.

“(I’m) just trying to come in here and establish myself in a role, fit into the team, just be accepted by everyone and do whatever’s asked of me,” said Gabriel. “I’ll do whatever it takes to win and right now it’s not good enough to win.”

Torchetti said Gabriel has “come along way” in the last month especially in his confidence.

“I think he’s adapted to the speed of the game,” said Torchetti. “I think that confidence goes a long way with athletes.”

Torchetti also said that while he knows he’s a tough guy and can fight, he’s “got to be able to play” if he wants to make it to the next level.

“If you’re going to make the next step to the NHL, you’ve got to be able play a solid eight minutes on the fourth line,” said Torchetti. “You just can’t be a fighter and that’s why they drafted him and they’re excited about his development so far … He’s just got to continue his improvement.”

He was drafted by the Minnesota Wild in the third round (No. 81 overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft and played eight games last season posting two goals and two assists. So far this year he has 10 points (six goals, four assists).

Imports/Exports

In the month of February, the Wild have signed five new players to PTOs and all five of them played during the three-game weekend. Forwards Greg Wolfe, and Joe Perry and defensemen Collin Bowman, Joel Chouinard, and Joe Stejskal were signed to PTOs by the Wild this month.

Torchetti said there were a few breakdowns with the newcomers, especially in Friday night’s game and that they should have had a better result in that game, but he still said that he thought they have done well.

“They’ve worked hard, they competed, I like their game, I like their level of intensity and now you’ve got to see if they can keep their consistency with the intensity because everyone can play their first three games because they’ve got a lot of juice and energy and they’re focused,” said Torchetti. “To make the jump to the next level, from the East Coast League to the American League is to be a consistent player.”

Bowman had an assist on Iowa’s goal of the game on Friday against Texas, which was the first goal of the season for forward Olivier Archambault with 54 seconds to go. Archambault was not recently signed to a PTO, but was recalled from the Alaska Aces on Feb. 5.

Gabriel said that he “can’t say enough” about the recent additions to the team.

“Every guy coming up has been totally great in the room, they do their job,” said Gabriel. “They’re great guys. I’m buddies with all of them. They work hard, they’ve earned their opportunity up here and there’s jobs to be had like Torch says, so I think a lot of them are making the most of it.”

The post Gabriel rising, Wild falling appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Back-to-back trouble, Schroeder stars, Rechlicz wrecks

DES MOINES – Since John Torchetti took over at the helm for the Iowa Wild 12 games into this regular season, the improvement is noticeable in their record and he said he likes their performance “a lot” so far.

Before Torchetti took over, the team was 2-10. Since then they are 9-9-1-1, winning four out of 11 road games and five out of nine home games after finishing last season as the second-worst team in the league at home behind only the Portland Pirates, winning just 11 games at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Despite the improvement, Torchetti specifically mentioned one area his team could improve upon and that is their consistency when playing on consecutive nights.

“That, to me, number one is being in shape,” Torchetti said. “That’s the focus in the physical and the mental part of the game, I feel that being in shape gets you there because our back-to-backs haven’t been very good.”

The Wild have played back-to-back games 11 times this season, including three games in three nights back on Nov. 21-23. They are 6-17 in those games and 5-8 in those games under Torchetti’s leadership. In their last three sets of back-to-back games, the Wild won the first game and lost the second.

On Dec. 26, the Wild beat the Rockford Ice Hogs on the road 2-1, only to get blown out by the Grand Rapids Griffins 9-2 the next night in Grand Rapids.

In the first games of two-game back-to-back weekends since Nov. 14, the Wild are scoring 4.2 goals per game on average and allowing just 1.8 goals per contest. In the second game of those weekends, they are averaging just 2.2 goals scored while allowing a troubling 5.4.

“We’ve got to find ways to win those games and we’ve got to be mentally ready moving forward,” Torchetti said. “That’s why we put a little challenge into the guys of being ready for this back-to-back that’s coming up with Rochester and Utica so I’m looking forward to watching.”

The Wild hit the road this weekend for a pair of games out in New York beginning with Rochester on Friday and concluding in Utica on Saturday.

The Americans (12-19-1-0, 25 pts) are in last place in the North Division while the Comets (25-5-5-0, 47 pts) are the top team in the league and are in first in the North Division.

Schroeder delivers again

In the Wild’s most recent game, they took on the Milwaukee Admirals without the help of their leading goal scorer, Tyler Graovac, who was called up to Minnesota on Dec. 28 and made his NHL debut the next night against the Winnipeg Jets. It didn’t matter for Iowa as they made a comeback against the Admirals and won 2-1 in overtime behind two goals from Minnesota native Jordan Schroeder.

The Wild were outshot 15-5 in the first period but closed the gap to 32-26 by game’s end.

“The first period wasn’t great,” Schroeder said. “A lot of action in our end a lot of shots on (Johan Gustafsson) so we wanted to get pucks deep and stop turning the puck over. When we get pucks deep and use our speed and get behind their D we can create things.”

With under five minutes to go in the overtime period and a power play for Iowa, Schroeder took a pass from defenseman Danny Syvret and put it past Marek Mazanec for the winner.

The goal was Schroeder’s second of the game and his ninth of the season as he is now the third-highest scorer on the team with 22 points (9 goals, 13 assists) and is the second-highest goal scorer on the team.

Rechlicz takes on tough guy role

A big part of the comeback attempt was physical play by the Wild in the second period, including a fight by 6-foot-4 defenseman Joel Rechlicz with Milwaukee forward Michael Liambas.

The fight was initially broken up before it happened at the faceoff and both players were penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct, but the pair fought each other right out of the penalty box two minutes later.

After the game, Torchetti praised Rechlicz’s ability to take on the “tough guy” role to get the players and fans going in the second period.

“That’s a tough role to have in hockey, I’ll tell you that,” said Torchetti. “He relishes in it.”

Imports/Exports

On Dec. 27 goaltender John Curry was recalled by Minnesota. The next day Minnesota recalled forwards Brett Sutter and Tyler Graovac and reassigned defenseman Justin Falk.

On Dec. 29 the Wild signed goaltender Parker Milner to a PTO to take the place of Curry with Josh Harding still recovering from a dehydration episode he suffered in a game with Iowa on Dec. 6 in Chicago.

The post Iowa Wild Notebook appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Matt Dumba makes immediate impact in Des Moines

DES MOINES – On Nov. 29, the Minnesota Wild assigned defenseman Matt Dumba to the Iowa Wild. The next night he played his first AHL game since May 4, 2013 in the Calder Cup Playoffs against the Grand Rapids Griffins as a member of the Houston Aeros.

Since joining the Iowa Wild, Dumba has made an immediate impact, including setting a new team mark for plus-minus with a plus-4 rating on Dec. 8 against the Charlotte Checkers in Charlotte.

After a 4-1 in over the San Antonio Rampage on Thursday night at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Dumba said that he expected to have that kind of immediate impact on the team.

Matt Dumba says he wants to be a difference maker during his Iowa stint. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

“I believe in myself, I have confidence,” Dumba said. “That’s the type of player I am. I want to make a difference and down here, getting the ice time that I am, I’m trying to do the best I can without trying to force things or do a little too much, because sometimes I can do that. It’s just keeping simplicity in my game and just trying to be sharp and make hard plays.”

Dumba has four points (2 goals, 2 assists) in his first four Iowa games including an assist against San Antonio on Thursday, a goal and an assist on the game-winning goal at Charlotte on Monday and a goal in his first game with the team at San Antonio on Nov. 30.

Confidence is something Iowa coach John Torchetti also says he sees in Dumba.

“He’s only going to get better,” Torchetti said. “He’s confident, he’s one of our leaders and he knows that; and he’s only been here two weeks.”

After the game against San Antonio, Torchetti called Dumba a “naturally-gifted player.”

“He’s going to drift in the offensive zone, he’s going to join the rush naturally,” Torchetti said.

The 2012 first-round draft pick by Minnesota now has seven AHL regular-season games under his belt in his career and four career points, all this season. He has also played 33 NHL regular-season games in his career, all for Minnesota, and has recorded six points (2 goals, 4 assists).

Learning to play with new guys is not a task Dumba has had to deal with very much since he joined Iowa as he has known a lot of the current players for two years since he was drafted as they have all gone through the system in Minnesota together.

“A lot of them are good buddies,” Dumba said. “It’s kind of nice coming down here and having some chemistry with some of these guys.”

The post Man on a mission appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Iowa goalie puts early-season struggles, demotion behind him.

DES MOINES – Iowa Wild goaltender John Curry has struggled early this season. He was 0-4 in just five appearances with a .885 save percentage going into Sunday’s game against the Milwaukee Admirals, but the struggle didn’t continue when he returned from his recent assignment to the Quad City Mallards of the ECHL.

After playing in one game with the Mallards he returned to Iowa in a big way for the game on Sunday and stopped 33-of-34 shots against the Admirals and denied all three shooters in the shootout to help the Wild to a 2-1 win.

“It’s just good to get it (first win) out of the way,” Curry said after the game. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot. When you start the year off individually 0-4 you start thinking about things, and I can tell you I didn’t feel like I ever lost my game. I can’t tell you I’ve played my best but it was just a tough start.”

Curry thinks that playing for the Mallards last Friday night helped him going into the game on Sunday.

“I want to be at this level, but I hadn’t played in a couple of weeks and it’s always good to get the 60 minutes under your belt, more for endurance and just getting back in shape than anything else,” Curry said. “Honestly, I had a good time. It was a fun win and a fun group of guys down there.”

On Nov. 21 Curry got the start for the Mallards as they took on the Rapid City Rush at the iWireless Center in Moline, Ill. and turned aside 27-of-29 shots as the Mallards went on to win 4-2 behind four third-period goals.

Curry has now appeared in six games, starting five for the Wild while Johan Gustafsson has played in 13 games and has a 4-8-1 record with one shutout this year and a .894 save percentage.

The win was the Wild’s first ever win against Milwaukee in Des Moines as the Admirals went into the game with a 10-0 record all time against the Wild at Wells Fargo Arena.

In the shootout on Sunday, after a Zack Phillips goal put the Wild up 1-0, Jordan Schroeder had a chance to end it with a goal but was denied and the pressure shifted to Curry who made the big save and secured the win for the Wild.

“He wanted the game and he proved it there,” Iowa coach John Torchetti said.

“He was really big for us … I know he can be a difference in our team moving forward and with that tandem we’re going to be a tough team to beat.”

Since Torchetti took over as head coach on Nov. 11 the Wild are 3-3. They won their first two games, a 3-2 win at Milwaukee and a 4-2 win over Oklahoma City at home before dropping the next three to Oklahoma City, Rockford and Chicago and then winning on Sunday.

Tyler Graovac is the Wild’s scoring leader with 15 points (6 goals, 9 assists). His six goals tie him for the team lead with Marc Hagel.

Michael Keranan is next on the team with 12 points (3 goals, 9 assists) and Schroeder has 11 points (4 goals, 7 assists). Brett Sutter is also in double figures with 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists).

Up Next

The Wild will now hit the road for five-straight games starting with the Rockford Ice Hogs on Wednesday. On Saturday and Sunday the Wild will be in the state of Texas for a game against the defending Calder Cup Champion Texas Stars on Saturday and the San Antonio Rampage on Sunday.

After that they will play in Charlotte against the Checkers on Dec. 6 and 8 before returning to Des Moines on Dec. 11 against the Rampage.

Imports/Exports

On Nov. 19 the Minnesota Wild assigned goaltender Josh Harding to the Iowa Wild. He was Gustafsson’s backup in the Wild’s games at Rockford and at Chicago on Nov. 21 and 22 but did not see any playing time. He was not in uniform on Sunday.

Defenseman Justin Falk and Schroeder returned to Iowa on Nov. 14 after a brief stint with the Minnesota Wild and on Nov. 20, forward Ryan Walters was assigned to the Alaska Aces of the ECHL.

The post Curry shines in rebound win appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Torchetti to return after AHL club bottoms out

DES MOINES – After a 27-36-7-6 record last season and a 2-10-0-0 start to this season, the Minneapolis StarTribune’s Michael Russo is reporting the Iowa Wild have fired coach Kurt Kleinendorst. The team is expected to announce former Houston Aeros coach John Torchetti as his replacement on Tuesday.

Through the first 12 games of this season, the Wild are just 1-6 on their home ice in Des Moines and 1-4 on the road. They are averaging just 2.25 goals for per game while allowing 3.83 goals per game.

Following their most recent game, a 5-1 loss to the Chicago Wolves at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Kleinendorst said that the team’s lack of success was a reflection on him.

“This is a different group than the group that we had last year,” Kleinendorst said. “What’s the common denominator? I guess it’s the guy standing behind the bench, so it’s frustrating, but if you’re looking for answers right now, obviously I don’t have them because if we did, we’d probably have a better home record than what we have.”

In 2011 Kleinendorst, a Grand Rapids, Minn. native, won the Calder Cup as the head coach of the Binghamton Senators.

Torchetti coached the Houston Aeros to two-straight postseason appearances and a 75-51-26 record over two seasons at the helm from 2011-2013. When the team relocated, he took the head coaching job with CSKA Moscow of the KHL in Russia and the Wild hired Kleinendorst fresh off of one season guiding the University of Alabama-Huntsville to a 3-21-1 mark.

Torchetti is expected to be on the ice with the Wild for their practice on Tuesday in Des Moines.

Marc Hagel (right, in white) battles for the puck against Rockford on Nov. 6 at Wells Fargo Arena. (Iowa Wild Photo/Reese Strickland)

The Wild played two games against the Wolves on Saturday and Sunday in Des Moines and lost the first contest by a score of 4-2 as they held the game close until the Wolves scored an empty-net goal with 10 seconds to go.

In Sunday’s game things were bad from the start for the Wild. They were down 4-0 before Zack Mitchell found the back of the net with just 2:23 to go in the game.

The goal, which was assisted by forward Marc Hagel and defenseman Justin Falk, was Mitchell’s second in as many games. Mitchell is now the Wild’s fifth-leading scorer with six points (four goals, two assits) while Hagel is the team’s goal scoring leader and is tied for second on the team with seven points (five goals, two assists) with Jordan Schroeder leading the team with 11 points (four goals, seven assists).

After Sunday’s game, Iowa defenseman Justin Falk said that “maybe we’re just not getting a full effort” from the team.

“You’ve got to find it in yourself to want to go out there and make a difference,” Falk said. “I don’t want to sound selfish but you’ve got to want the most for yourself and if you’re working hard for yourself that’s going to filter down and do good things for the team.”

Kleinendorst noted that his players were “so low” after what ultimately became his final game as their coach.

“You’d think by now we would’ve hit bottom but yet every night we come out and it seems like we find a new one,” Kleinendorst said. “That’s a little bit disheartening.”

Imports/Exports

On Nov. 7 the Wild recalled defenseman Corbin Baldwin from ECHL affiliate Alaska Aces. The day before, the Wild release forward Nicholas Rioux from his PTO . Rioux played hit three games without registering a point.

On Nov. 1 Minnesota reassigned Falk to Iowa and recalled defenseman Jon Blum.

Up Next

The Wild hit the road on Wednesday for a game in Milwaukee against the Admirals. In their last game in Milwaukee, the Wild got their second win of the season by a score of 4-2.

On Friday and Saturday, they return home to play a pair of games against the Oklahoma City Barons. The Wild lost 5-3 and 4-2 in their last two games at Oklahoma City this season.

The post Iowa Wild fire Kleinendorst appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Schroeder fuels Iowa to first win after five-game skid

DES MOINES – The home crowd went home happy after the Iowa Wild’s sixth game of the season on Saturday, as the Wild cruised to a 4-1 victory against the Charlotte Checkers behind 35 saves by goaltender Johan Gustafsson and a pair of Jordan Schroeder goals at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

The win, however, was Iowa’s first of the season as they started out on a five-game losing streak.

After losing 5-1 to Charlotte the night before, defenseman Justin Faulk said that they got together the next morning and decided that “enough is enough” before the game that night. He said they played with more desperation in the win.

“The bleeding had to stop and it was a good game for us to build on and take into Milwaukee,” Faulk said.

In the first five games of the 2014-15 season, the Wild scored just eight goals (1.6 goals per game) and surrendered 20. The team especially struggled on Oct. 18 in a 4-0 loss at home to the Milwaukee Admirals and in the next game, a 5-1 loss to Charlotte on Friday.

“Nobody’s happy about what’s going on right now,” Iowa coach Kurt Kleinendorst said after the Oct. 18 loss. “We’re not going to sit here and filter out a bunch of excuses or anything like that. We’ve got to be better.”

Kleinendorst said that he was surprised at the issues they were having at that point.

“I really didn’t think we were going to have issues like we’re having right now,” Kleinendorst said. “So I’m a little bit surprised myself, but now it’s a matter of taking a step back, just evaluate things, see where we’re at with regard to everything: personnel, systems, what we’re doing, when we’re doing it and how long we’re doing it and just move forward from there.”

In the 4-0 loss to Milwaukee Gustafsson allowed four goals on 24 shots one night after giving up four goals in the first period against Milwaukee and being replaced by John Curry.

After Friday’s 5-1 loss to Charlotte, a game in which Curry got the start and allowed five goals on 25 shots, Iowa captain Stephane Veilleux stressed the importance of bouncing back in the next game.

“We’re all disappointed and frustrated,” Veilleux said. “We have to bounce back tomorrow. There’s no other way to play better and to play a whole 60 minutes tomorrow.”

Curry is 0-2 this season with an .882 save percentage in three appearances. After Saturday’s win, Gustafsson is 1-3 with a .887 save percentage.

In the win on Saturday, Kleinendorst had made some changes in the lines which included the combination of Tyler Graovac, Zack Mitchell and Schroeder. The result was two first-period goals from Schroeder, both of which Graovac assisted on.

Schroeder is Iowa’s leading scorer so far with eight points (three goals, five assists). Graovac is right behind him with six points (one goal, five assists).

He’s (Schroeder) a little guy, but he plays fast, he plays gritty,” Faulk said of Schroeder, a Prior Lake, Minnesota native, who is listed at 5’9″, 179 pounds on the team roster. “He created a lot, made a lot happen by himself with the speed and the way he worked tonight.”

Crop Damage

Defenseman Gustav Olofsson underwent a shoulder procedure and will be out “long-term” according to Kleinendorst.

Forward Raphael Bussieres was absent from practice last week and missed both games this past weekend after sustaining a concussion against Milwaukee on Oct. 18.

Cody Almond left Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury, but Kleinendorst said they wouldn’t know how serious it is until Monday.

Imports / Exports

On Oct. 21, Iowa assigned defenseman Corbin Baldwin to Alaska of the ECHL.

Up Next

The Wild hit the road for the next three games playing at Milwaukee on Wednesday before playing two games at Oklahoma City Nov. 1 and 2. Wednesday’s and Saturday’s games will start at 7 p.m. with Sunday’s game beginning at 4 p.m.

The Wild will return home against Rockford on Nov. 6.

The post Farm Report: One for the Win Column appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.