THE WILD WIRE - #9
Dec 3, 2018WHAT A WIN
If you listened to Saturday night’s game in Colorado, you may have heard me wonder out loud if it was going to be one of those nights where the Wild finally met their match.
After falling in the shootout Friday evening, Iowa found itself in a 2-0 hole by the time the first period ended on Saturday. The team’s power play had come up empty on two attempts (plus the majority of a third try) when the opening 20 minutes concluded. The Eagles crowd was passionate and engaged. Colorado had won four straight games overall and had points in eight of its last nine games at Budweiser Events Center.
Keep in mind, the Wild had not faced a 2-0 deficit at the first intermission all season long. The bounces weren’t going their way. The officiating was questionable at times. The penalty kill was tasked with killing off seven Eagles power plays, including two lengthy 5-on-3s.
It just felt like one of those nights.
But Luke Kunin’s second period goal and Dmitry Sokolov’s wicked wrist shot with 5:09 remaining in the third period helped Iowa draw even.
After an overtime session where the Wild hit several goal posts, the game went to the shootout for the second straight night.
Justin Kloos scored in the fourth round and Eagles forward A.J. Greer misfired on his attempt, allowing the Wild to sneak out of Loveland, CO with a 3-2 shootout victory.
The win ended a stretch of four straight, post-regulation games where Iowa failed to secure the second standings point. More importantly, it gave the team three of a possible four points in the two-game set.
So here we are in early December with the Wild sitting on 31 points, which is tied for second-most in the 31-team AHL.
SECOND PLACE IN THE ENTIRE LEAGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pinch me if this is a dream.
Think about how proud the coaching staff must be. How proud management must be. This team has fought its tail off every night. They’ve been in every game – all 22 of them. To that point, Iowa hasn’t lost by more than two goals all season; and, they’ve only lost two games by two goals – Oct. 20 in Texas where they lost 3-1 and Nov. 4 at home to Rockford, a 4-2 setback.
On Oct. 20, it was a 1-1 game after 40 minutes of play and a 2-1 deficit for the Wild with about five minutes left. Nov. 4 was Iowa’s third game in as many days and Rockford sealed up the victory with an empty-netter. So really, both of those games could have easily gone Iowa’s direction.
The Wild enter this week’s three-game homestand with points in nine straight outings (5-0-2-2). The franchise record is an 11-game point streak, set during the 2016-2017 season.
STAR WARS NIGHT
There’s a lot of great promotions at Wells Fargo Arena this week, including Friday night’s Teddy Bear Toss, an annual tradition.
However, I’m most pumped for Star Wars Night (yes, I’m a Star Wars nerd).
Here’s my Star Wars movie rankings (since I know internally you were dying for this):
- Empire Strikes Back – The Ice Planet Of Hoth is badass
- Return Of The Jedi – Han Solo frozen in carbonite / Luke & Leia save the day - YES please
- Star Wars: A New Hope – The OG edition – could easily be slotted as #1 or #2
- The Force Awakens – From 2015 – I have a crush on Rey, so let’s just move on
- Attack Of The Clones – This is “episode 2” – Jango Fett is awesome and Yoda dominates the ending of this flick
- The Last Jedi – Newest one of the bunch – and I feel some remorse putting this one so low on the list since I really enjoyed it and Luke shows off his Jedi powers one final time
- Revenge Of The Sith – Gotta love seeing how (SPOILER ALERT) Anakin becomes Darth Vader
- The Phantom Menace – a lot of Star Wars fans hate this episode – look, it has its flaws, but at the time of its release (1999), it kind of kick-started the Star Wars saga again. Plus, Darth Maul is legit
As for the Star Wars spin-offs, both were awesome. Rogue One was basically a war movie with a Star Wars theme to it. Telling the story of how the rebels stole the Death Star plans is a great Star Wars subplot that was never previously unveiled.
Solo was rock solid too. Donald Glover killed it as Lando Calrissian and the story of how Han met Chewy was great. Loved both spin-offs, to be honest.
So, if you see me on the concourse getting photos with the Star Wars characters Saturday night, just know the pictures are for my kids…😉
- Wild Joe Radio