DES MOINES, IA – The Iowa Wild extended their consecutive point streak to 10 straight games on Saturday, downing the Coachella Valley Firebirds in their second ever meeting, 5-2. Iowa closed out the scoring with three unanswered goals led by Sammy Walker, who scored twice. With the victory, the Wild are 8-0-2 over their last 10 and also snapped Coachella Valley’s 14 consecutive game point streak.

The Firebirds stunned the crowd of over 7000 early, scoring 23 seconds into the contest. Kole Lind sent a bouncing puck toward Alexander True, who was able to corral it briefly before lifting a wrist shot over the shoulder of Jesper Wallstedt for his fifth goal of the season.

That woke the Wild up, who stepped up their forecheck. They finally tied the score at 16:13 when Walker scored his first goal of the evening. Nic Petan entered the Firebirds end, leaving a drop pass for Andrej Šustr. He moved down toward the left face-off circle before finding Walker at the right post. Walker redirected the pass by Joey Daccord for his 16th goal of the year.

A little less than two minutes later Joe Hicketts gave Iowa the lead, netting his fourth goal of the season. Nick Swaney passed the puck to Hicketts in the high slot, who blasted a slap shot by the Daccord to make it 2-1 heading to the first intermission.

Coachella Valley had been outshot 9-4 in the first period, but began to pick up the pace in the second. They tied the score at 8:07 when Tye Kartye netted his ninth goal of the season. Lind earned his second assist of the game when he set up Kartye with a shot that found its way through the pads of Wallstedt.

From there, it was all Iowa Wild, who scored two goals in the final 1:38 of the second period to take command of this game. At 18:22, Walker netted his second goal of the game, scoring on the power-play. It was nearly a mirror reflection of the first goal for Walker, with Hicketts setting him up at the left post for the deflection through the legs of Daccord to make it 3-2.

With 12 seconds left in the period, Šustr extended the lead to two. Hicketts fed the puck across the slot to Šustr who snapped off a wrist shot from the right face-off circle, beating the Coachella Valley netminder over the shoulder for his second goal of the season. Hicketts earned his second assist of the night on the play, giving him three points in the game. Petan also had an assist on the goal, his third of the contest.

In the third, Adam Beckman sealed the victory with his 14th goal of the season a little over four minutes into the frame. Swaney carried the puck into the Coachella Valley end, then found Beckman near the net, who beat Daccord with a wrist shot to make it 5-2. Šustr earned an assist on the play, also giving him a goal and two assists.

Wallstedt finished with 21 saves. It was his seventh straight victory, and he has allowed eight goals in that span.

The victory moved the Iowa Wild (21-14-6) into third place in the Central Division, two points ahead of the Rockford IceHogs. The club now heads to the road to take on the Texas Stars (23-9-8) on Monday. The puck drops at 7:00.

Gamesheet

by Robert Pannier