With only five defensemen available for their Friday night game against the Toledo Walleye, the Iowa Heartlanders knew their offense needed to step up.

Instead, it fell down.

The Heartlanders flung the puck into the net once as they lost, 10-1, in front of 1,640 spectators at Xtream Arena.

Forward Jack Billings scored the only goal for the Heartlanders at the 16:47 mark of the second period during a Heartlander power play.

The Heartlanders totaled 27 shots throughout 60 mintues of play, but Walleye goaltender Kaden Fulcher kept a strong hold of his net.

“Well, they had some big saves, and we did have some chances,” Heartlanders head coach Gerry Fleming said postgame. “He was there to shut the door. His rebound control was good.”

Heartlander defenseman Fedor Gordeev led Iowa with seven shots.

The Heartlanders were without forwards Kris Bennett and Ryan Kuffner for Friday’s game, as they were recalled to the AHL’s Iowa Wild.

The Minnesota Wild placed two players in COVID-19 protocol and lost one to injury, leading the NHL club to recall three players from tis AHL affiliate.

So, the Iowa Wild replenished their roster with four players they had assigned to the Heartlanders before the season.

Bennett had three goals and two assists while Kuffner tallied one goal and two assists in their short stints with the Heartlanders.

“They’re huge parts of our team, but you can’t worry about the guys you don’t have,” Fleming said. “You have to worry about the guys you do have, and these guys have an opportunity now to fill those roles that those guys had. So, it’s their opportunity to step in and show that they can play in those high minutes, those all situations type of things.”

The Iowa Wild also assigned forward Alex Khovanov to the Heartlanders on Thursday.

Khovanov, a 5-foot-11 left-handed shooter from Russia, was drafted in the third round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft by the Minnesota Wild. He signed a three-year entry contract with Minnesota in March 2019, but hasn’t appeared in a game with the Iowa Wild in the 2021-22 season.

Khovanov had the secondary assist on the Billings’s goal. He recorded one shot in his Heartlander debut.

Forward Brett Gravelle, who played his first ECHL game on Wednesday and tallied two goals and an assist, was scratched before the game. Forward Zach Remers signed with the Heartlanders preceding the game Friday and did not record any shots during the matchup.

Remers was previously on the Fayetteville Marksmen roster of the Southern Professional Hockey League.

The Heartlanders’ offensive woes came after a strong start to the season, as Iowa scored seven goals in its opening game last week. Iowa then scored three goals in each of their next two games.

The 1-2-1 Heartlanders will have a chance to score soon, as they have a rematch against the Walleye at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Xtream Arena.

“We were playing predictable,” Billings said. “We weren’t playing for each other. We just got a lot of kinks to work out. It was one of those nights. Hopefully we’re going to it around tomorrow, come back a little harder.”