Rossi Records Hat Trick to Lead Wild in San Diego

SAN DIEGO, CA – Marco Rossi scored the first hat trick of his professional career on Saturday, leading the Iowa Wild to a 6-2 victory over the San Diego Gulls. Nic Petan also recorded three points and Jesper Wallstedt stopped 34 shots to earn the victory.
Iowa dominated the first period, outshooting San Diego 13-3. That helped the team jump out to a 2-0 lead. Brandon Baddock put the Wild on top 10:29 into the contest. After knocking down a pass attempt in the neutral zone, Baddock headed in on San Diego netminder Gage Alexander, beating him with a wrist shot just past the blocker for his fourth goal of the year.
A little under three minutes later, Mike O’Leary scored his 11th goal of the season to extend the lead to two. Damien Giroux hit O’Leary with a perfect pass just before he entered the Gulls zone. O’Leary moved in, lifting a wrist shot that beat Alexander to make it 2-0.
San Diego had been completely outplayed in the first period, but responded in the second, outshooting the Wild 19-6. That help them to tie the score, scoring two goals in the span of 75 seconds to knot this game at two.
The first came at 5:43 one Michael Del Zotto scored on the power-play. Chase De Leo found Del Zotto just inside the left face-off circle, who lifted a shot that beat Wallstedt to cut the deficit to one. At 6:58, Brent Gates finished off a perfect give-and-go, when he passed the puck to Brayden Tracey, who fed it right back to Gates. Gates blew a one timer by Wallstedt to tie the game at two.
The Gulls were peppering Wallstedt, but he was spectacular, making a number of great saves. The Wild rewarded their netminder, scoring two goals in then final seven minutes of the second, despite only taking six shots.
The first came at 13:04 when Rossi scored his first goal of the night. With Iowa on a power-play, O’Leary fed the puck into the corner to Petan, who went across the slot to the point to Rossi. He moved in on goal before firing a laser past the glove of Alexander to make it 3-2.
With three seconds left in the second, Rossi extended the lead to two. Petan moved the puck along the boards to Simon Johansson, who fired a pass to the backdoor that Rossi tipped in for his second goal of the night.
Rossi completed the natural hat trick, scoring at 11:46 of the third to extend the lead to three. Mitchell Balmas used the forecheck to create a turnover inside the Gulls zone. He then fed a perfect pass through traffic onto the stick of Rossi, who beat Alexander to the blocker to make it 5-2.
San Diego pulled their netminder with three minutes left looking to try to get back into this game, but Petan scored an empty net tally, his 19th of the season, to close out the scoring.
Petan finished with a goal and two assists. O’Leary had a goal and an assist. Wallstedt stopped 34 shots, moving to 16-13-4.
The Iowa Wild (29-24-9) remain in San Diego to take on the Gulls (19-40-1) on Tuesday. The puck drops at 9:00 Iowa time.
By Robert Pannier