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.

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.

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.