GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The Iowa Wild earned their third straight victory, defeating the Grand Rapids Griffins on Wednesday, 5-2. Nic Petan, Sammy Walker, and Michael Milne each had a goal and an assist for the Wild. Zane McIntyre had his best outing in over a month, allowing two goals on 32 shots.

Iowa headed to the first intermission up by two thanks to goals by Adam Beckman and Petan. Beckman scored 6:06 into the contest, as he forced a turnover at the Grand Rapids blueline. That allowed Beckman to move in on Griffins netminder Alex Nedeljkovic, beating him with a wrist shot for his 11th goal of the season.

Just after the 11^–minute mark, Petan netted a power-play goal to extend the lead to two. Joe Hicketts passed the puck to Walker at the left face-off circle, who made a beautiful cross ice pass across the slot to Petan. Petan buried a one-timer past Nedeljkovic for his fifth goal of the year.

The Wild had been outshot in the first period, 11-8, and were dominated in much of the second, outshot by Grand Rapids 12-5. That enabled the Griffins to get back into the contest, tying the score with two goals starting with Kyle Criscuolo at 13:36. Criscuolo made a beautiful move behind the net, using a wraparound attempt to beat McIntyre for his fifth goal of the season.

With just under two minutes left in the frame, Chase Pearson scored a shorthanded goal to tie the score at two. Nedeljkovic made the save on a Wild shot, then found Pearson alone in the neutral zone, firing a great clearing pass out of his own end onto the stick of Pearson who beat McIntyre with a backhander for his first goal of the year.

Grand Rapids had taken control of this contest, but Walker scored with 15 seconds left in the second period to regain the momentum for Iowa. This time it was the Wild using a great clearing pass into the neutral zone as Steven Fogarty found Walker, sending him and on a 2-on-2. Walker dropped the puck for Petan, who fed it back to Walker, allowing him to redirect the puck past Nedeljkovic for his 14th goal of the year.

This was a tense contest for the first eight minutes of the third period, but Milne extended the lead to two when he scored on a penalty shot at 8:47. Milne earned the attempt when he took a Patrick Curry pass in the neutral zone, moving in on a breakaway before he was hauled down. Milne then made a nice move to beat Nedeljkovic with his third goal of the year.

Curry missed out on the assist because of the hooking call, but earned his first goal of the year at 16:24. Damien Giroux took a shot that Nedeljkovic saved, but Curry gained control of the rebound, putting it past the Grand Rapids netminder. That sealed the 5-2 victory.

The win was the third in a row for the Iowa Wild (16-14-4), who remain in Grand Rapids to take on the Griffins (13-18-2) on Friday. The puck drops at 6:00 Iowa time.

Gamesheet

by Robert Pannier