Fuel Break Iowa's Heart in the Heartland on Wednesday
ECHL Indy Fuel

Fuel Break Iowa's Heart in the Heartland on Wednesday

Published on December 18, 2025 under ECHL (ECHL)
Indy Fuel News Release


CORALVILLE - The Indy Fuel headed to Iowa to take on the Heartlanders for the first time this season. After spending most of the game down, Indy came back to defeat the Heartlanders 4-2 in a high-shooting battle.

1ST PERIOD

Fuel captain Chris Cameron took the game's first penalty at 4:27. He sat for two minutes for tripping before Indy successfully killed off the penalty.

The Heartlanders pushed momentum for the next ten minutes, racking up shots on Owen Flores in net for Indy, before Ryan McGuire scored at 12:24. This put Iowa up 1-0.

Keanan Stewart took Iowa's first penalty at 16:24 after a hooking call against him. This put the Fuel on the power play and while they pressured, they could not score.

Time expired soon after that, with the Heartlanders outshooting Indy 10-7 with a 1-0 lead.

2ND PERIOD

Just 38 seconds into the second period, Elliott McDermott took a high sticking penalty which put the Fuel on the power play. Brett Moravec capitalized on the power play with a goal at 2:12 to tie it up. Owen Robinson and Matt Petgrave had the assists on that goal.

Indy took back to back penalties, just four seconds apart. The first was to Sahil Panwar at 3:31 for interference, and the second was on Christian Berger at 3:35 for delay of game.

This put Iowa on a lengthy 5-on-3 power play. The Fuel came close to killing off the penalty but with one second left on the power play, Iowa's Nolan Orzeck scored to give the Heartlanders a 2-1 lead.

Robinson drew a penalty shot at 12:13 in the second frame but Riley Mercer made the glove save in net for Iowa. The score remained 2-1 in favor of Iowa.

At 13:17, Iowa went back on the power play after a slashing penalty was called on Lee Lapid but the Fuel killed it off.

Indy held momentum for the remainder of the second period, eclipsing the Heartlanders in shots but neither team scored again before time expired.

3RD PERIOD

Indy's Matt Petgrave got to work quickly, scoring his first goal of the season and tying the game 2-2 with the help of Nick Grima and Israels.

Former Fuel forward, Brandon Schultz took a high sticking penalty at 3:53, putting Indy back on the power play.

At 12:51, Jesse Tucker scored to give Indy a 3-2 lead, their first of the game. Grima collected his second assist of the night while Petgrave earned his third point of the night with his second assist.

Cameron headed back to the penalty box at 13:00 after he was called for interference, giving Iowa a power play. Soon after that penalty was killed off, the Heartlanders took an interference penalty of their own at 15:06. That was killed off too.

With about two minutes to go, Iowa pulled Mercer from goal in favor of the extra skater. The gamble did not pay off for Iowa as Indy's Sahil Panwar intercepted the puck and scored an empty net goal to make it 4-2.

Despite keeping their man-advantage, Iowa could not score again and the game ended with a 4-2 win. Indy outshot them 17-2 in the third period and 41-23 overall.

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