The Iowa Heartlanders allowed two second period goals on Saturday night, leading to a 3-2 loss to the Kalamazoo Wings at Xtream Arena.

The score was tied at one for most of the second period. But with 22 seconds left, Wings forward Matheson Iacopelli scored. Kalamazoo forward Zach Jordan, who recorded a hat trick against the Heartlanders on Friday, scored 9.4 seconds later to give the Wings a one-point advantage.

“We quit on plays, and they didn’t, and it ended up in the back of our net,” Heartlanders head coach Gerry Fleming said. “At the end of the day, we just lost too many battles, and when you don’t win too many battles, you usually lose the war.”

Kalamazoo forward Greg Betzold got the Wings on the board first with a goal in the first period.

But Iowa captain Kris Bennett recorded a point for the Heartlanders for his first game back in Coralville since Dec. 31. Bennett registered an assist on a goal from forward Ryan Kuffner.

Bennett was recalled to the Iowa Wild on Dec. 31 and played in Des Moines for almost a month. He was loaned back to the Heartlanders on Saturday.

Heading into the contest, Bennett had recorded 12 goals and 12 assists in a Heartlanders jersey.

“It’s always good to have Benny back,” Fleming said. “He brought some spark. He wasn’t the reason why we lost tonight, that’s for sure.”

Defenseman Billy Constantinou tallied Iowa’s second goal of the night in the third period on a power play — his fifth of the season.

Goaltender Trevin Kozlowski finished the night with 27 saves on 30 shots faced.

Big picture

The Heartlanders’ second straight defeat brought their record down to 15-20-5-1 as they kept their last place position in the ECHL Central Division with a 0.439 points percentage.

Iowa won just one of three games in its homestand — a 5-3 victory over the Indy Fuel on Wednesday.

A well-attended game

The Heartlanders recorded the second-largest crowd at Xtream Arena on Saturday as attendance came in at 2,744. The record attendance for a Heartlanders game is 4,017 people, which happened on Iowa’s opening night on Oct. 22.

The capacity for Xtream Arena is 5,100.

Prior to Saturday’s contest, the Heartlanders possessed the third-lowest attendance average in the ECHL at 1,797. The two teams trailing them were the Newfoundland Growlers (1,729) and the Wheeling Nailers (1,600).

Up next

 The Heartlanders will spend plenty of time on the bus next week as they play on the road against the Cincinnati Cyclones on Feb. 2, the Toledo Walleye on Feb. 4, and the Wheeling Nailers on Feb. 5.

Toledo leads the central division with a 0.722 points percentage, while Cincinnati’s 0.577 points puts the Cyclones in second place. Wheeling is in fifth place, owning a 0.539 points percentage.