DES MOINES, IA – Adam Beckman scored twice and the Iowa Wild scored the final three goals of the game to earn a 5-2 victory over the Manitoba Moose. Marco Rossi and Nic Petan each added two assists and Jesper Wallstedt stopped 20 shots to earn the victory. The win was the fourth in a row for Iowa.

This was an exciting first period that saw each team scored two goals. Twice Iowa took one goal leads only to see Manitoba battle back to tie the score each time. The first of those came just 28 seconds in the contest when Beckman netted his 20th goal of the year. He stole the puck at his own blueline, then headed the opposite direction on a partial breakaway, beating Moose netminder Oskari Salminen with a backhand attempt as he was moving across to the far post to make it 1-0.

Manitoba responded just after the six-minute mark when Alex Limoges scored his 15th goal of the year. He took a pass from Jansen Harkins during a 2-on-1 break into the Iowa zone, beating Wallstedt with a wrist shot to the blocker to tie the game at one.

At 13:15, Steven Fogarty gave his team the lead once again, scoring on the power-play to make it 2-1. It was a great tic-tac-toe play, as Petan made a cross crease pass to Rossi who passed it back into the slot to Fogarty. He buried a one-timer by Salminen for his 14th goal of the year.

Just 32 seconds later, Limoges scored his second goal of the game to knot the game at two. Jeff Malott took a shot that Wallstedt saved, but Limoges put the rebound in to send the game to the first intermission tied at two.

The Iowa Wild retook the lead with two goals in the second, starting with Daemon Hunt scoring his second goal of the season 10:14 in the frame. Just after a Wild power-play ended, Dakota Mermis moved the puck back to Hunt at the point, who lifted a wrist shot that beat Salminen over the shoulder to put Iowa on top, 3-2.

With 2:48 left in the second, Joe Hicketts scored on the power-play to extend the lead to two. Rossi moved the puck back to the point to Hicketts, who blasted a shot by Salminen for his fifth goal of the year.

With just under three minutes left in the contest, Beckman sealed the victory with an empty net tally, his second goal of the contest.

Wallstedt stopped 20 shots to earn his second straight victory. He has allowed six total goals over his last three starts.

These two teams will go at it again on Sunday. The puck drops at 3:00.

Gamesheet

by Robert Pannier