It was an early morning and I was in dire need of coffee with a crowd of a few thousand screaming kids for Iowa’s annual “School Day Game.” Although the Rockford IceHogs had over double Iowa’s shots on goal total, the Wild were able to hold them off and come away with the win, 5-3.
Steve Michalek (1-0-0; 3.00 GAA/.917 SV%) made his first start of the season with Niklas Svedberg getting the emergency call up following the birth of Alex Stalock’s second kid. Fortunately, he had the opportunity to play five games in the ECHL to warm-up and was able to stop 31 of Rockford’s 34 shots in the win.