DES MOINES, Iowa – The Iowa Wild pulled within a goal midway through the third period but the Rockford IceHogs held on in a 4-2 decision at Wells Fargo Arena on Saturday night. Graeme Clarke and Carson Lambos scored for Iowa in the loss.
Clarke put Iowa in front in front with a power-play goal 8:17 into the game. After Caedan Bankier sent the puck across the ice, Luke Toporowski sent a centering feed to Clarke for a wrister over the blocker of Mitchell Weeks (30 saves).
Paul Ludwinski knocked the rebound of Samuel Savoie’s shot past Samuel Hlavaj (26 saves) at 12:38 to tie the game.
Rockford outshot Iowa 12-8 in the opening 20 minutes.
Hlavaj stoned Cole Guttman on the doorstep but Guttman poked home his own rebound 2:34 into the middle frame.
Landon Slaggert finished off a backdoor pass from Ethan Del Mastro 3:15 later to put the IceHogs up 3-1.
The IceHogs outshot the Wild 26-16 through two periods.
Lambos crashed the net and buried a turnaround centering pass from Toporowski to pull Iowa within one with 10:18 to play. Bankier earned his second assist of the game on the goal.
Colton Dach scored on the empty net at 18:13 of the third period to close out the scoring.
Iowa outshot Rockford 32-30. The Wild went 1-for-3 on the power play while the IceHogs were 1-for-4 with the man advantage.
Iowa kicks off a seven-game road swing with a visit to BMO Center to take on Rockford on Tuesday, Dec. 31 at 6 p.m.