GAME PREVIEW: IOWA WILD VS. SPRINGFIELD THUNDERBIRDS

Feb 14, 2026

Iowa Wild (13-27-4-1; 31 pts.) vs. Springfield Thunderbirds (17-24-4-2; 40 pts.) 

The Iowa Wild and Springfield Thunderbirds finish a weekend series at Casey’s Center on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Wild will hold the team’s annual Pink In The Rink game, presented by Marine Credit Union; the first 5,000 fans will receive an LED pink light-up rally towel and Iowa will wear specialty pink jerseys, which will be available for purchase in a postgame auction with proceeds benefiting John Stoddard Cancer Center. 

WATCH: MC22, AHLTV on FloHockey 

LISTEN: 1460 AM and 106.3 FM on KXnO 

ALL-TIME SERIES 

All-Time Iowa Wild Record: 0-5-0-0 (0-3-0-0 at Iowa, 0-2-0-0 at Springfield) 

Last Time: After Springfield jumped out to a four-goal lead, Iowa responded with three goals before falling by a 6-3 score on Friday night... Oskar Olausson, Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, and Bradley Marek scored for the Wild... Iowa went 1-for-4 on the power play... Springfield finished 1-for-2 with the man advantage 

2024-25: Springfield won all four games against Iowa in the first season series between the two clubs... The Thunderbirds outscored the Wild 19-5 through the four contests... Matthew Peca led Springfield skaters in points (3-5=8)... Colten Ellis went 3-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA and a .971 SV% 

TEAM NOTES 

STREAK SNAPPED: Friday’s loss to Springfield snapped Iowa’s three-game win streak... The Wild have won three games in a row twice this season... Iowa’s previous three-game win streak came from Dec. 20-30... The Wild had outscored opponents 10-5 over the last three contests 

PLAY BY PERIOD: Friday’s game marked the first time in four games in which the Wild allowed multiple goals in a period... The Wild have allowed a second period goal in 14 consecutive games 

SPECIAL TEAMS STATS: Iowa has converted on the man advantage in three of the last four games... The Wild allowed a power-play goal on Friday for the first time in four games... Iowa had killed off all 12 power plays over the previous three games 

AWAY FROM HOME: Iowa will play nine of its next 10 games on the road following Saturday’s game 

HOT HANDS 

• Caedan Bankier has points in back-to-back games (1-1=2) 

• David Jiricek has recorded an assist in three games in a row (0-4=4) 

• Nicolas Aubé-Kubel (1-2=3) has points in back-to-back games 

SATURDAY MILESTONE 

• Hunter Haight enters Saturday’s contest one game shy of reaching 100 games in an Iowa uniform 

• Haight made his AHL debut on Oct. 12, 2024 vs. Manitoba and scored his first AHL goal on Oct. 20, 2024 at San Jose 

• The Strathroy, Ontario native made his NHL debut with the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 9, 2025 at St. Louis 

OLYMPIC HOCKEY 

• Samuel Hlavaj stopped 39-of-40 shots in his Olympic debut to backstop Slovakia to a 4-1 win over Finland on Wednesday 

• Hlavaj has appeared in two games for Slovakia, which will advance to the quarterfinals if Finland beats Italy on Saturday 

• David Spacek has recorded one assist in two games for Czechia 

For more information on Iowa Wild hockey, 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 2026-27 are on sale now. Fans can purchase season tickets for the upcoming season at https://www.iowawild.com/wild-365. 

Visit http://www.iowawild.com/pressbox for the latest news and information from the team including press releases, game notes, multimedia content, and daily statistics.   

Iowa Wild games are now streaming on AHLTV on FloHockey. Fans can visit FloHockey.tv now to create a free account, purchase subscriptions for the 2025-26 season, and watch all Iowa Wild games online.