GAME PREVIEW: IOWA WILD AT ROCKFORD ICEHOGS
Dec 27, 2024Iowa Wild (10-15-1-0; 21 pts.) at Rockford IceHogs (11-12-3-1; 26 pts.)
The Iowa Wild and Rockford IceHogs kick off a home-and-home weekend series at BMO Center on Friday at 7 p.m.
ALL-TIME SERIES
All-Time Iowa Wild Record: 59-46-6-5 (31-25-1-1 at Wells Fargo Arena, 28-21-5-4 at Rockford)
Last Time: Iowa defeated Rockford by a 5-1 score at Wells Fargo Arena on Dec. 17... Caedan Bankier, Matthew Sop, Hunter Haight, and Liam Öhgren (2) scored for the Wild... Samuel Hlavaj stopped 28-of-29 shots in the win... Iowa went 1-for-3 on the power play... Rockford finished 1-for-2 with the man advantage
2023-24: Iowa went 4-7-0-1 against Rockford in 2023-24... Three of the 12 games were decided by one goal... Carson Lambos (0-6=6) and Sammy Walker (2-4=6) ranked T-2nd among Iowa skaters in points during the season series... Jesper Wallstedt went 4-3-0 with a 2.46 GAA and a 0.917 SV%
TEAM NOTES
TOP HEAVY: Iowa’s skaters have registered 39 total points (17-22=39) against Rockford this season... Travis Boyd (0-7=7) and Liam Öhgren (5-1=6) have accounted for a third of Iowa’s points... Both players have registered two multi-point games... Boyd and Öhgren each posted multiple points on Nov. 9 and Dec. 17
HOME-AND-HOME: Iowa’s home-and-home with Rockford is the second of two this season... The Wild were swept by Chicago on Dec. 20 and 21 ahead of the break... Iowa had not played a home-and-home since 2022-23 (Apr. 7-8 vs. Chicago)
FOUR OR MORE: Over the last 12 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)
ACROSS THE POND
-
Goaltender Dylan Ferguson is on loan to Team Canada for the Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland from Dec. 26-31
-
The Lantzville, B.C. native had never previously represented his country
-
Ferguson is currently six appearances short of his AHL single-season career high (13, 2021-22 with Henderson) and five wins shy of matching his previous AHL single-season best (8, 2022-23 with Toronto/Belleville)
-
Ferguson won the Kelly Cup (ECHL) with Fort Wayne in 2020-21
-
Ferguson signed a one-year, one-way AHL contract with Iowa on Sept. 24, 2024
HOT HANDS
-
Samuel Hlavaj has allowed two goals or fewer in each of his last four starts and six goals in his last four games
-
Travis Boyd is riding a three-game point streak (1-6=7)
-
Boyd recorded four assists in his last game with Iowa on Dec. 17 vs. Rockford
-
Michael Milne recorded a season-high seven shots on Saturday at Chicago
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.