IOWA FALLS 5-4 TO TORONTO IN COUNTRY NIGHT THRILLER
Jan 17, 2026DES MOINES, Iowa – The Toronto Marlies dealt the Iowa Wild a narrow defeat in a 5-4 decision at Casey’s Center on Saturday night.
Borya Valis opened the scoring for Toronto 2:13 into the game with a backdoor tip-in over the left pad of Riley Mercer (17 saves) on the power play.
Carson Lambos evened the score for the Wild with a wrister through traffic 2:25 later with an assist from Caedan Bankier.
Iowa took the lead at the end of a power play at 6:45. Elliot Desnoyer set up Jean-Luc Foudy for a one-timer from the left circle and Bankier slammed the rebound into an empty net.
Gerry Mayhew made the score 3-1 with a nifty deflection that squeezed between Vyacheslav Peska (four saves) and the near post at 8:54. Oskar Olausson and Dylan Gambrell assisted on Mayhew’s tally.
Iowa outshot Toronto 7-3 in the first period. Artur Akhtyamov (14 saves) replaced Peska after 20 minutes.
The Marlies responded with a four-goal outburst in the middle frame. Valis found the back of the net again at 2:59 before Logan Shaw added a pair of goals at 10:53 and 16:25. Logan Haymes made the score 5-3 with a shot under the crossbar from the wall with one second left in the period.
The Marlies outshot the Wild 21-14 through 40 minutes.
The Wild rallied to close the margin to a single goal with 4:36 remaining. After Desnoyers sent a centering pass to Foudy, Olausson jumped on a loose puck and punched it past Akthyamov.
Each team finished with 22 shots. The Wild went 1-for-4 with the man advantage while the Marlies finished 3-for-6 on the power play.
Iowa hosts the Texas Stars on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 7 p.m.
Iowa Wild hockey is presented by Kwik Star. For more information on Iowa Wild hockey, please visit www.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 home games are played at Casey’s Center. 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.