The Iowa Heartlanders dropped their first six road games in the 2021-22 season, falling by at least two goals each time they were away from Xtream Arena.

But the seventh matchup on the road ended up to be the lucky one for the franchise, as the Heartlanders took down the Fort Wayne Komets, 5-1, on Sunday to close out a three-game road series.

Behind a 31-save performance from goaltender Hunter Jones, three Heartlanders recorded their first goal of the professional careers against the ECHL Central Division-leading Komets on Sunday at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Forward Yuki Miura scored his first professional goal six minutes and 42 seconds into his third ECHL game. Bryce Gervais, a forward assigned from the AHL’s Iowa Wild to the Heartlanders on Wednesday, put up his first ECHL goal of the season with 3:40 remaining in the first period.

Though the Heartlanders surrendered a goal before the end of the first period to Komet defenseman Will Graber, the Heartlanders plotted another insurance goal at 16:36 of the second period from Adrien Beraldo — the first of the defenseman’s professional career.

Forward Ben Sokay was the final Heartlander to score his first professional goal Sunday, sealing Iowa’s scoring 43 seconds into the third period.

Iowa’s Sunday victory capped off a 1-2 road trip for the franchise.

The Heartlanders allowed five unanswered goals to the Toledo Walleye in the first game of the road trip on Friday at the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio. Iowa scored its only goal on a power play in the third period, with forward Bryce Misley finding the back of the net.

In the Saturday rematch, the Heartlanders found themselves in the loss column again. Iowa fell, 6-1, to the Walleye. Toledo tallied three goals in the first period. Heartlander defenseman Billy Constantinou tallied Iowa’s only goal — the fourth of his rookie campaign.

Big picture

The 3-8-2 Heartlanders are at the bottom of the ECHL Central Division standings. Iowa will head into a four-game homestand after collecting its first road victory.

Currently, the Heartlanders are four points behind the fourth-place Kalamazoo Wings. The top four teams of each division earn a spot to the Kelly Cup playoffs.

 Zmolek called up

Defenseman Riese Zmolek, an alternate captain for the Heartlanders, was called up to the Iowa Wild on Sunday.

The Heartlanders were without Zmolek on Saturday and Sunday and only played with five defensemen Saturday.

The Iowa Wild called up Zmolek for the second time this season.

Up next

 The Heartlanders host their next four games at Xtream Arena. Three of those games take place during Thanksgiving week on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.

The Wednesday match is against the Kansas City Mavericks. The Heartlanders played the Mavericks the first two games of the 2021-22 season, splitting the series. The Wheeling Nailers then come to Coralville for the Friday and Saturday games. The Heartlanders fell to the Nailers in overtime, 4-3, on Oct. 27.

In the final game of the homestand on Dec. 1, the Heartlanders will face the Wichita Thunder for the first time.