Jan 27, 2024
DES MOINES, Iowa – The Iowa Wild were unable to overcome an early four-goal deficit and fell 7-4 to the San Diego Gulls in front of 12,603 fans at Wells Fargo Arena on Saturday night. Mason Shaw scored twice for Iowa in the loss.
San Diego opened up a 3-0 lead in the first period. Nikita Nesterenko finished off a backdoor pass from Sasha Pastujov 4:13 into the game.
Pavol Regenda added a second tally for the Gulls at 10:03 when he slammed the rebound of Nesternko’s shot past Zane McIntyre (16 saves).
Pastujov widened the margin to three goals with a wrister over the glove of McIntyre off the rush at 18:02.
San Diego outshot Iowa 9-6 in the opening 20 minutes.
Pastujov added his second of the evening and widened the San Diego lead to 4-0 at 11:20 of the middle frame when he fired a wrist shot over McIntyre from the right circle.
Iowa pulled back within two goals with a pair of strikes 1:01 apart. David Spacek crashed the crease and punched the rebound of Nic Petan’s shot past Calle Clang (28 saves) at 14:40 to put the Wild on the board.
Carson Lambos made the score 4-2 on a backhand finish from the hashmarks with assists from Joël Teasdale and Sammy Walker.
Pastujov slid a puck under McIntyre to complete his hat trick at 17:17 to give San Diego a 5-2 lead ahead of the second intermission.
Iowa outshot San Diego 22-14 through two periods.
Nesterenko roofed a shot from the left circle at 1:10 of the third to widen San Diego’s lead to four goals for the second time in the game.
Shaw netted the next two Iowa goals. He first combined with Petan on a give-and-go at 5:13 to make the score 6-3.
Shaw’s second goal of the third period came shorthanded off a backdoor feed from Conley at 12:12.
Nesterenko completed his hat trick and capped the scoring with an empty-net goal with 2:12 to play.
Iowa outshot San Diego 32-23. The Wild went 0-for-2 on the power play while the Gulls were 2-for-5 on the man advantage.
Iowa visits the Henderson Silver Knights on Friday, Feb. 2 at 9 p.m.
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…
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