GAME PREVIEW: IOWA WILD AT ONTARIO REIGN
Jan 10, 2025Iowa Wild (11-19-2-0; 24 pts.) at Ontario Reign (20-9-0-1; 41 pts.)
The Iowa Wild visit the Ontario Reign at Toyota Arena on Friday at 9 p.m.
ALL-TIME SERIES
All-Time Iowa Wild Record: 5-5-1-1 (3-2-1-0 at Wells Fargo Arena, 2-3-0-1 at Ontario)
Last Time: Ontario scored four unanswered goals to beat Iowa 4-3 on Dec. 15, 2019 at Toyota Center... J.T. Brown scored twice for the Wild and Will Bitten found the back of the net... Iowa’s power play finished 2-for-6... Dereck Baribeau stopped 28-of-32 shots... Matthew Villalta turned aside 30-of-33 shots to earn the win for the Reign
2019-20: Iowa 2-2-0-0 against Ontario during the last season series... Louie Belpedio (1-3=4), Sam Anas (0-4=4), and Sam Anas (0-4=4) led the Wild in points... Mat Robson posted a record of 2-0-0 with a 1.44 GAA and a .947 SV%... The Wild finished 5-for-24 on the power play against the Reign
TEAM NOTES
BREAK THROUGH TWO: Over the last 11 games, Iowa has scored two goals or fewer nine times... The Wild earned a single point in those nine games... Iowa scored five goals in each of the other two games and won each contest... The Wild are 1-17-2-0 when scoring two or fewer goals
GAMES IN REGULATION: The Wild have played the fewest overtime games in the AHL this season (2), tied with Henderson... Iowa is one of four teams in the AHL to not play in a shootout this season... The team’s longest single-season regular stretch without a shootout came over the entire 2020-21 regular season (34 games)
FOUR OR MORE: Over the last 18 games, Iowa has won every game in which the team has scored four goals and lost every game in which the team scored fewer than four goals... The Wild have not won when scoring three or fewer dating back to Oct. 29 (3-2 W vs. CHI)
MINNESOTA DEBUT
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Defenseman David Jiricek made his Minnesota debut against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday
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Jiricek registered one shot and three blocked shots in 16:01 of ice time
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Jiricek became the 91st player to appear in an NHL game after playing with the Iowa Wild
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83 Iowa alumni have gone on to play for the Minnesota Wild
FAMILIAR OPPONENT
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Ontario’s captain, defenseman Joe Hicketts, is an Iowa Wild alumni
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Hicketts appeared in 133 Iowa games during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons
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The Kamloops, Britsh Columbia native served as an alternate captain during the 2022-23 campaign
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Hicketts led Iowa defensemen and ranked second among AHL blueliners in goals (12) during the 2021-22 season
For more information on Iowa Wild hockey, please visit www.iowawild.com. Fans can purchase single-game tickets through the team’s website at www.iowawild.com. Group tickets (10 or more), suites, Wild 365 memberships or premium tickets can be purchased by contacting the Iowa Wild Ticket Department at 515-564-8700 or tickets@iowawild.com. Season tickets for 2023-24 are on sale now. Fans can purchase season tickets for the upcoming season at https://www.iowawild.com/wild-365.
Visit http://www.iowawild.com/pressbox for the latest news and information from the team including press releases, game notes, multimedia content, and daily statistics.
Iowa Wild games are now streaming on AHLTV on FloHockey. Fans can visit FloHockey.tv now to create a free account, purchase subscriptions for the 2024-25 season, and watch all Iowa Wild games online.