Iowa Wild (3) at Cleveland Monsters (0)

Attendance: 10,687

Starters

Monsters

Wild

Goal Recap

Almost seven minutes into the first period, an unattended Mario Lucia put the Wild on the board first. Sifers tried to get to him before the puck left his stick. Yevenko tried to get to the puck before it sailed into the net behind Forsberg. The Monsters were a millisecond behind the Wild.

Bertschy extended the Wild’s lead to two after a rather flukey goal 6:31 into the second period. He rebounded the puck with his chest. The puck bounced off of his chest, off of Forsberg’s back, and into the back of the net.

The goal went to review. After a lengthy review, it was deemed a good goal.

When you look at the goal from above the net, it appears Bertschy snagged a piece of the puck with his stick as he floated across the crease behind Forsberg.

Forsberg vacated the net with a little over three minutes to play in the game. After multiple attempts to score, the Wild finally were able to sink a puck into the back of the empty net. Teemu Pulkkinen was the goal scorer.

But Wait! There’s More

Save of the Night

The save of the night came with 4:35 left in the second period.

Shawn Szydlowski picked up a rebound and fired it towards the net. Alex Stalock lept across the crease and blocked the shot with the middle of his stick.

This save was Sports Center Top 10 quality.

.@ESPNAssignDesk This one belongs at the top of the list, courtesy of @Stalock32! #SCTop10 💪 pic.twitter.com/gN0DktFxAJ

— Iowa Wild (@IAWild) February 4, 2017

Quick Thoughts

• The defense looked great in the first period. It took the Wild five minutes to fire off a shot.
• The Oliver Bjorkstrand, Markus Hannikainen, and TJ Tynan line have learned when and how to step in when the defense isn’t around. During the second period, Forsberg blocked a shot which bounced down in front of him. Had Tynan not been there to shoot the puck towards the boards, it would have been bad news for the Monsters.
• Bjorkstrand is constantly learning.  With 11:25 left in the second period, Bjorkstrand fired a shot through someone’s legs and was stopped by Stalock. He immediately looked at the humungotron to see the replay. The same thing happened with 44 seconds left in the second after Bjorkstrand shot a puck just a bit wide of the net. His next few shots didn’t go wide.
• Mario Lucia learned an important lesson tonight. If you are in Anton Forsberg’s way, he will push you out of the way. First, you get a warning bump. Then, you get a two-handed shove or a smack on the butt. Lucia received the two-handed shove out of the crease.    /

3 Stars

1^st – Alex Stalock (28 saves, 28 shots faced, TOI: 60:00)

2^nd – Mario Lucia (1g, 0a)

3^rd – Teemu Pulkkinen (1g, 1a)

Milestones

The Iowa Wild had quite a few milestones tonight.

Maxime Fortunus (Wild) played in his 800^th regular season game for the AHL. Only 37 people before him have done this.

Christoph Bertschy (Wild) notched his 50^th AHL career point on his second period goal.

Tonight’s shutout was Alex Stalock’s 10^th career shutout.

What’s Next

The Monsters and Wild meet back at Quicken Loans Arena on Saturday, February 4^th at 7pm EST.

Tonight’s loss bumped the Monsters out of the fourth spot in the division. They will be able to recapture the coveted fourth spot with a win tomorrow.