A shorthanded goal was the difference in the Iowa Heartlanders’ public scrimmage at Xtream Arena on Wednesday night.

Forward Alec Broetzman recorded the game-winning score with less than five minutes left in the intrasquad exhibition to give Team Rose a 4-3 victory over Team Dash.

“I was just trying to get to the middle and shoot the puck,” Broetzman said. “It was a great clear on the penalty kill by everyone.”

The scrimmage consisted of two 25-minute periods and was held in lieu of the Heartlanders competing in a preseason contest versus another ECHL club.

Forward Patrick Curry of Team Dash recorded the first goal under four minutes into the scrimmage. Then, Team Rose forward Jake Smith notched the affair at one about five-and-a-half minutes later.

Forward Mitchell Balmas put one in the back of the net on a breakaway for Team Dash at 15:25 of the first period. Less than a minute later, defenseman Ryan Wheeler tied the contest.

Forward Griff Jeszka opened the scoring in the second period at 3:39 to put Team Rose ahead. Balmas knotted the game with his second score with under 10 minutes left.

Goaltender Corbin Kaczperski started for Team Rose, while Hunter Jones took the net for Team Dash. In the second period, Cody Karpinski replaced Kaczperski. Team Rose outshot Team Dash, 34-24.

Iowa head coach Derek Damon, who watched the scrimmage from a suite with associate coach Joe Exter, mentioned he was impressed with how Jones performed.

“He was on top of it,” Damon said. “He was moving really well, and he was in control of his game.”

Forwards James Sanchez, Zach White, Brendan Robbins, and Brendan Soucie didn’t dress for the scrimmage.

Big picture

The Heartlanders will make a good chunk of their cuts on Thursday, Damon said. Iowa has 29 players on its training camp roster but needs to reduce it to 21 by Oct. 19, per league office requirements.

Damon noted they might keep one or two tryout players because they want a longer look at them.

“Joe and I were just talking, like there’s a lot of good pieces out there,” Damon said. “A lot of things we can build on off of tonight. Our decisions tough on some of these guys. It’s not easy to tell a guy that he can’t realize his dream right now, and it’s not something we enjoy doing in the business. But again, if we’re trying to get to where we want to be, we have to make those tough decisions.”

Curry assigned to the Heartlanders

Curry has spent most of training camp with the AHL’s Iowa Wild. On Wednesday morning, the franchise assigned him to the Heartlanders.

The Schaumburg, Illinois, product then made the trip to Coralville. Despite it being his first day in a Heartlanders sweater, he said the adjustment to the club wasn’t difficult.

Curry mentioned he met the Heartlanders staff when he was at Xtream Arena last week for the Wild’s exhibition contests. He also knew some of the players on the roster because they were in Wild training camp with him.

“Obviously, as a competitor, I want to be playing up there,” Curry said. “But I look at it as an opportunity to come down here and play more, get more touches, develop my game more, so that when the time comes, I’m ready.”

Before signing a two-way contract with the Wild over the summer, Curry was with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and ECHL’s Toledo Walleye in 2021-22. He recorded three points in 29 contests with the Griffins and eight points over five games with Toledo.

Up next

Iowa will begin a two-game homestand against the Idaho Steelheads on Oct. 21. The first game will be at 7:05 p.m. at Xtream Arena.

Idaho missed the 2022 Kelly Cup Playoffs by one spot, finishing fifth place in the ECHL Mountain Division.