DES MOINES, IA – The Iowa Wild found themselves trailing by two just 24 minutes into Sunday afternoon’s contest, but used two power-play goals as part of four unanswered tallies to defeat the Manitoba Moose, 4-2. Marco Rossi and Adam Beckman each scored twice. It was the second straight two goal performance for Beckman. Zane McIntyre stopped 24 shots to earn the victory.

Manitoba jumped out in front 6:06 into the contest when Tyler Boland scored his seventh goal of the season. Greg Meireles fed the puck to Boland just before he entered the Iowa zone. That sent him in on a breakaway, where he beat McIntyre through the five hole to make it 1-0.

In the second, Manitoba extend the lead to two when Meireles scored 3:45 into the frame. Thomas Caron carried the puck into the Wild end on a 2-on-1 break, then fed Meireles across the slot, who beat McIntyre with a backhander, and it looked like Manitoba was going to dominate this contest.

However, Iowa scored back-to-back goals on the power-play to knot the game at two. The first came at 15:01 when Rossi scored his first goal of the contest. Joe Hicketts made a perfect pass to Rossi at the left face-off circle, who snapped off a wrist shot that beat Arvid Holm to make it 2-1.

That was the score heading into the third, but Beckman tied the score 5:17 in of the frame when he scored his 22nd goal of the season. Once again, Iowa was on the power-play when Hicketts moved the puck to Beckman at the right face-off circle, who blew a one-timer by Holm to make it 2-2.

Iowa was on a roll, and continued to pressure, as Rossi gave his team the lead at 12:09. Michael Milne was able to create a turnover inside the Manitoba end, giving it to Rossi who beat the Most goaltender with a wrist shot for his second goal of the night.

With four seconds left in the contest, Beckman sealed the victory with an empty net tally. It was the second straight night that he scored an empty net goal as well. Beckman finished with two goals and an assist.

McIntyre was solid between the pipes, stopping 24 of 26 shots. It was his fourth straight victory and he has allowed seven total goals during that span.

The victory moved the Iowa Wild (28-22-9) into a fourth-place in the Central Division, four points behind Manitoba and two points ahead of Rockford. The Wild will now had to the road to take on Coachella Valley (38-11-6) for two games starting on Wednesday. The puck drops at 9:00 Iowa time.

Gamesheet

by Robert Pannier