Road trip continues Saturday in Toledo

Toledo, OH – The Iowa Heartlanders, proud ECHL affiliate of the Minnesota Wild and Iowa Wild, play their sixth straight away game against the Toledo Walleye Saturday at 6:15 p.m. Iowa’s franchise-record ten-game road trip has taken the team to five cities – Kalamazoo, Wheeling, Fort Wayne, Cincinnati and Toledo. Through the opening five games, Iowa is 2-2-0-1.

Friday in Cincinnati, the Heartlanders allowed goals at untimely moments in a 6-2 loss; Cincinnati scored five of their six goals in the final two minutes or opening two minutes of periods.

Iowa is visiting Toledo for the first time this season. 

Similar to Iowa, Toledo is playing three games in three days this weekend. On Friday, Toledo visited Wheeling and won, 3-2, behind a game-winning strike from Alex Doucet. 

Toledo has 22 points, first in the Central Division. Iowa is second with 19 points.

Iowa is next at home Dec. 15-17 vs. Toledo. 

Get tickets for Heartlanders Home games: Iowaheartlanders.com/tickets

Game Day Guide: 
6:00 PM: FloHockey broadcast and audio broadcast starts.
6:15 PM: Puck Drop 
Watch on FloHockey https://flosports.link/3tVsLmd

Listen on Mixlr mixlr.com/goheartlanders

Need to know
- The Heartlanders have lost back-to-back games in regulation for the first time Oct. 28-29 at Wichita.

- Yuki Miura scored Iowa’s third short-handed goal of the season Friday; the Heartlanders have more short-handed tallied this season than they had all of last season (2). 

- Fourteen of Iowa’s 17 games have been tied or within a goal in the third period. 

Affiliates: Iowa Heartlanders (Minnesota Wild/Iowa Wild) | Toledo Walleye (Detroit Red Wings/Grand Rapids Griffins)

Scouting the Walleye

Toledo ripped off eight wins in their first 11 games to seize first place in the Central Division and are 2-2-0-0 since the fast start.

Led by first-year Head Coach Pat Mikesch, the Walleye are looking to make the playoffs for the eighth straight season. Mikesch replaced Dan Watson, who earned a career .690 winning percentage with Toledo in six seasons. Watson is now the Head Coach of Toledo’s AHL affiliate Grand Rapids.

Despite the bench boss change, the Walleye are loaded with returning producers Brandon Hawkins (11g in 15 GP), Sam Craggs (8g) and Trenton Bliss (6g).

Twelve of Toledo’s 15 games has seen the winning squad pot at least four goals. The Walleye have scored five or more goals in a game seven times this season. 

Season Series Preview

Iowa faces Toledo ten times this season, the most times the Heartlanders have played the Walleye in a season series. 

The Heartlanders play Toledo five times over Iowa’s next eight games. 

Following the early-season games, Iowa visits the Huntington Center twice in March and Toledo comes back to Xtream Arena three times in April. 

Road trip mileage update

The Heartlanders are in the second weekend of the team’s franchise record ten-game road trip. So far, the club is about 2100 miles through an expected 3400-mile journey. Next weekend, Iowa will add another 850 miles on the bus to complete the road trip.

Next up
The Heartlanders rematch the Walleye Sunday at 4:15 p.m. The Heartlanders visit Kalamazoo Fri., Dec. 8 at 6:00 p.m., take on the K-Wings again Sat., Dec. 9 at 6:00 p.m. and finish the road trip Sun., Dec. 10 at 4:00 p.m. at Fort Wayne.

 

Rose Club Memberships & Tickets Now Available For 2023-24 Season
Rose Club Season Ticket Memberships, Partial Plans, Mini-Plans, Flex Tickets and Single-Game Tickets are now available for the 2023-24 season, the Heartlanders’ third in the ECHL. Call 319-569-GOAL or visit iowaheartlanders.com/tickets for more information.