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.

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.