Clint Cole wraps up the Iowa Wild’s debut campaign.

DES MOINES — The inaugural season for the Iowa Wild is complete. It may not have been successful when it comes to the way the team played on the ice or how they finished in the standings, but it certainly wasn’t one to forget.

There were 4,4994 fans in attendance at the final home game of the Wild’s inaugural season, a 4-3 shootout loss to division foe Chicago Wolves on April 16. They finished 10^th in the league this season in average attendance with 5,883 fans per game on home ice.

“I thought the fans have been outstanding,” Wild coach Kurt Kleinendorst said following the final home game. “I think the support for what we’ve given them, I think anyone can appreciate that night in and night out.”

Kleinendorst said that they had not lost due to a lack of effort.

“I think at the end of the day it hasn’t gone unnoticed from our end either that we haven’t had a lot of success at home yet,” Kleinendorst said. “They’ve continued to come out and support us, and cheer us and not boo us and that would’ve been the easiest thing to do. So if you’re asking me what I’m going to take out of this first year, on a positive note, I’m going to remember how good the fans have been to us.”

The Wild finished dead last in the Western Conference with a 27-36-7-6 record. They went 16-14-4-4 on the road, but just 11-22-3-2 in front of the home crowd.

Forward Zack Phillips led the Wild in scoring with 33 points (12 goals, 21 assists) in 76 games but also had the team’s worst plus/minus rating at minus-30.

Brad Winchester finished as the team’s top point scorer with 38 points (19-19–38), although only only eight of those points came in an Iowa sweater after he was acquired in a Feb. 26 trade, along with defenseman Zach Miskovic, from the Rockford Ice Hogs in exchange for defenseman Brian Connolly.

Connelly, Iowa’s leading scorer through 50 games before the trade with 32 points (5-27–32), finished the season with 40 points (eight goals, 32 assists) overall.

Six different goalies played for Iowa this season with rookie Johan Gustafsson getting most of the starts when Darcy Kuemper was called up to Minnesota. In 40 games played, Gustafsson allowed 112 goals and had a .903 save percentage.

Moving on up

Some of the players who started the season with the Iowa Wild are making an impact with the Minnesota Wild as they have started their push in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Erik Haula, who had 27 points (14-13–27) in 31 games for the Iowa Wild this season, already has one goal in the playoffs through three games against the Colorado Avalanche in the first round.

Forward Stephane Veilleux has played 34 regular season games for the Iowa Wild and the Minnesota Wild this season and has appeared in two of three playoff games for Minnesota so far this season.

John Curry got a chance to play for the Minnesota Wild this season as well after starting the season playing for the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL. He started one game for Minnesota and made 43 saves while allowing two goals against the St. Louis Blues after compiling a .920 save percentage in the AHL in 19 games for the Iowa Wild this season.

Curry was the backup to Ilya Bryzgalov in the first game of the playoffs for Minnesota.

Due to injuries with the Minnesota Wild goaltenders, especially Josh Harding, Darcy Kuemper was only able to play in 17 games for Iowa, compiling a .929 save percentage. He played in 26 games for Minnesota in the regular season this year and compiled a .915 save percentage and played an important role in Minnesota’s push for the playoffs.

He came back from injury in game two in relief of Bryzgalov and pitched the first ever playoff shutout for the Minnesota Wild stopping 22 Colorado shots in a 1-0 overtime win in game three.

Kleinendorst said that it’s exciting for him to get to watch these players play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“There’s really three pieces to my puzzle, and that’s one of them,” Kleinendorst said. “To make sure that when guys get opportunities, they’re ready to and they’re ready to contribute and don’t miss a beat. I think we’ve done a nice job with that.”

The second piece, says Kleinendorst, is the “younger kids” and their development and he thinks they’ve done a “nice job with that,” as well. The third piece to his puzzle is winning.

“Even though we’ve had success on the road, we’ve had very little of it at home,” Kleinendorst said. “Two out of three, they say, sometimes isn’t bad, but I don’t think it’s going to fly around here. We’re going to have to get three out of three and that’s going to give us something to shoot for.”

The post Inaugural Season in the Books appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Darcy Kuemper makes a save against the Texas Stars on Nov. 1. (Photo: Reese Strickland – Iowa Wild)

The Iowa Wild, the Minnesota Wild’s American Hockey League affiliate, wrapped up a five-game home stand on Sunday, Nov. 3, winning two of five matchups at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

The Wild (5-4-0-0) are currently in fourth place in the Midwest Division ahead of only the Chicago Wolves (4-6-0-1) and now sit in 11th place in the Western Conference.

They started off the home stand with a win over the Wolves in a high-scoring 5-4 shootout victory. Forward Carson MacMillan was sent onto the ice in a score-or-lose situation and delivered which allowed the Wild’s next shooter, Taylor Matson, to score the game winner.

Wild head coach Kurt Kleinendorst “kind of knew he would get it done” when he sent Matson out there for the game-winner in the shootout.

“You’ve got some guys that might need five or six chances, maybe seven to score a goal, he needs two or three,” Kleinendorst said. “That’s just the kind of player that he is. At that moment, no pressure, shooting to win a game, I kind of had a feeling that he would be the right guy and he showed me right.”

Johan Gustafsson started that game, but Darcy Kuemper came in for relief after Gustafsson gave up four goals in two periods on 16 shots. Kuemper stopped all 21 shots he faced in the remainder of regulation and the overtime period before stopping three of six shots in the shootout en route to the win.

Three days later the Wild fell to the defending Calder Cup Champions Grand Rapids Griffins 3-2. The Wild gave up a shorthanded goal to Landon Ferraro with less than a minute left for the loss.

The Wild were 0-for-7 on the power play in that game and Kleinendorst said that it was the difference in the game.

“It’s not just the 0-for-7, it’s everything and every way that a power play that was 0-for-7 affects your group,” Kleinendorst said. “We had an opportunity at the end and it was just probably a little bit fitting that our power play was on the ice and we gave up a shorthanded goal. That’s kind of like the exclamation point.”

The Wild began the following weekend splitting two games against the Texas Stars on Nov. 1-2, winning 4-2 on Friday and getting shut out 5-0 on Saturday.

Forward Erik Haula tallied two goals in the game. Haula currently leads the Wild in scoring with seven points (3 goals, 4 assists). Matson and Jason Zucker scored one goal apiece while Kuemper went on to stop 32 shots in win.

On Saturday night, Kuemper made a season-high 44 saves but gave up five goals in the loss. Kuemper has a record of 3-3 early this season with 2.89 goals against on average and a .915 save percentage.

In Sunday night’s home-stand finale, the Milwaukee Admirals scored a trio of third-period goals, including an empty netter, to break open a tight, physical game and cruise to a 5-2 win.

After trading goals in the first period, the Wild broke the tie just 45 seconds into the second period with a goal from defenseman Steven Kampfer who took a pass from fellow defenseman Brian Connelly and skated all the way from his own zone to the attacking zone and ripped a wrist shot from the right side over the shoulder of Milwaukee goalie Marke Mazanec to take the lead.

Three minutes later things started getting physical between the two teams. Corbin Baldwin dropped the gloves with Michael Liambas. Both players were assessed an additional two-minute minor for unsportsmanlike conduct on top of the five minute majors for fighting.

Just minutes later Wild forward Raphael Bussieres got into a fight with Milwaukee forward Mathieu Tousignant. Just 24 seconds after that another fight broke out between Iowa captain Jake Dowell and Milwaukee defenseman Anthony Bitetto.

Iowa defenseman Jon Landry said it was good to see some of the players stand up for themselves during the second period.

“Last night we didn’t show enough fight in the game and tonight the boys really stepped up and showed really showed some heart and right till the end we tried to pull it out,” Landry said.

The Wild return to action this Friday and Saturday night, Nov. 8-9, on the road against the Rockford Ice Hogs in Rockford, Ill.

Transaction Notes:

On Oct. 31, Stephane Veilleux was reassigned to the Iowa Wild. He missed Iowa’s 4-2 win over the Texas Stars but was back in the lineup on Saturday where the Wild fell 5-0 against the Stars.

On Saturday, Nov. 2 the Wild loaned defenseman Corbin Baldwin to the Quad City Mallards of the CHL but was recalled to Iowa for their game against the Milwaukee Admirals.

On Sunday, Nov. 3 forward Carson MacMillan was recalled by the Minnesota Wild. MacMillan was tied for first on the team with six points (two goals, four assists).

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