DES MOINES, Iowa – The Toronto Marlies dealt the Iowa Wild a narrow defeat in a 5-4 decision at Casey’s Center on Saturday night.
Borya Valis opened the scoring for Toronto 2:13 into the game with a backdoor tip-in over the left pad of Riley Mercer (17 saves) on the power play.
Carson Lambos evened the score for the Wild with a wrister through traffic 2:25 later with an assist from Caedan Bankier.
Iowa took the lead at the end of a power play at 6:45. Elliot Desnoyer set up Jean-Luc Foudy for a one-timer from the left circle and Bankier slammed the rebound into an empty net.
Gerry Mayhew made the score 3-1 with a nifty deflection that squeezed between Vyacheslav Peska (four saves) and the near post at 8:54. Oskar Olausson and Dylan Gambrell assisted on Mayhew’s tally.
Iowa outshot Toronto 7-3 in the first period. Artur Akhtyamov (14 saves) replaced Peska after 20 minutes.
The Marlies responded with a four-goal outburst in the middle frame. Valis found the back of the net again at 2:59 before Logan Shaw added a pair of goals at 10:53 and 16:25. Logan Haymes made the score 5-3 with a shot under the crossbar from the wall with one second left in the period.
The Marlies outshot the Wild 21-14 through 40 minutes.
The Wild rallied to close the margin to a single goal with 4:36 remaining. After Desnoyers sent a centering pass to Foudy, Olausson jumped on a loose puck and punched it past Akthyamov.
Each team finished with 22 shots. The Wild went 1-for-4 with the man advantage while the Marlies finished 3-for-6 on the power play.
Iowa hosts the Texas Stars on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 7 p.m.
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