DES MOINES, Iowa – The Iowa Wild fell 5-2 to the Grand Rapids Griffins at Casey’s Center on Wednesday night.
The Griffins put the game away early with four goals in the first period. Amadeus Lombardi beat Cal Petersen (23 saves) with a point shot 1:29 into the game, and Tyler Angle and Ondrej Becher scored 27 seconds apart midway through the period to extend the lead to three goals.
Wojciech Stachowiak followed up a rebound on the power play to extend the Griffins lead to 4-0 with 2:28 remaining in the opening frame.
Grand Rapids outshot Iowa 11-7 in the first period.
Iowa responded 10:14 into the second period. After Ryan Sandelin sent the puck to the goal line, Bradley Marek found Oskar Olausson alone in front for a forehand finish past Michal Postava (24 saves).
Caedan Bankier found David Spacek on the backdoor with 1:25 remaining in the middle frame to pull the Wild within two goals.
Iowa outshot Grand Rapids 20-17 through 40 minutes
Alex Kannok Leipert scored on the empty net for Grand Rapids with eight seconds remaining.
Grand Rapids outshot Iowa 28-26. The Wild finished 0-for-3 on the power play while the Griffins went 1-for-6 with the man advantage.
Iowa hosts the Manitoba Moose on Friday, Apr. 17 at 7 p.m. on Fan Appreciation Weekend. The first 1,500 fans will receive a goalie mask kids bank courtesy of Affinity Credit Union & WM.