The Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, has been a tough building for the IceHogs to find success. Beating the Wild goaltender has been even tougher. In a similar contest to last week’s 3-0 defeat in Iowa, the IceHogs fell, 3-1, to the Wild on Thursday night.
The first 20 minutes had a steady end-to-end flow with few whistles cutting the air besides a single penalty on each team. The home team quickly capitalized on its man advantage at the 4:04 mark. Iowa center Tyler Graovac knocked a rebound out of the air past IceHogs goalie Lars Johansson for the only tally of the opening period.