Veteran forward Tyler Pitlick savors debut with hometown Wild

PHILADELPHIA When he took his first shift on Saturday night versus the Flyers in South Philly Tyler Pitlick became the th Minnesota-born sportsman to wear a Minnesota Wild sweater in a encounter He also became the second member of his Twin Cities family to don the green and Iron Range red in a tournament A little more than three years ago Tyler s first cousin Rem was acquired by the Wild from Nashville played games with Minnesota and was promptly traded to Montreal in the midst of the - season Tyler necessities more games to become the Pitlick family s iron man in a Wild uniform It was awesome Pitlick declared after the Wild s - overtime loss to Philadelphia I was obviously really excited to play for the hometown association but more importantly just to get back to the NHL after a year-and-a-half hiatus It was pretty special and it was great The Wild are Pitlick s ninth NHL organization after he signed a pro contract with Edmonton back in He has more than NHL games under his belt but spent all of last season in the AHL playing in the Boston Bruins system After a good training camp with the Wild Pitlick determined himself back in the AHL with Iowa but getting lots of minutes I thought I had a decent camp Obviously it could have been a little bit better he mentioned Saturday But I think it wasn t a horrible thing for me to go down and play a lot of minutes minutes a night and getting that juice going and take it into here Pitlick and the Iowa Wild were in North Carolina on Friday night where they fell - to the Charlotte Checkers Not long after he changed out of his hockey gear that night Pitlick got the call to the show and was handed a plane ticket for Philadelphia I ascertained out after the battle about or recalled Pitlick who played prep hockey at Centennial and spent a year each at Minnesota State Mankato and with Medicine Hat in the Canadian major junior leagues Got my itinerary for the flight in the morning Then car flight got here for pregame meal took a nap and ready to roll Wild coach John Hynes put Pitlick on the fourth line with right wing Danila Yurov at center and Yakov Trenin on the other wing With all three of them standing -foot- or better Hynes is clearly looking for a size line and Pitlick recorded four hits in the championship skating more than seven minutes I thought Pitlick brought good resource and speed Hynes mentioned postgame I liked the line with him and Yurov and Trenin They had certain zone time and I thought he had a good outing While the band s sole focus with two games remaining on their current road trip is to get back in the win column they went - - in visits to Dallas Washington and Philadelphia Pitlick likes being a member of the Wild and playing on a line he feels suits his meeting Various big bodies he declared We ve got specific speed we play a north tournament I think we re gonna get all over specific defensemen and they re not gonna like playing against us Related Articles Cates OT goal lifts Flyers over Wild Wild add David Jiricek Tyler Pitlick after Zach Bogosian is injured Ovie show too much for Wild again as they fall in DC Kirill Kaprizov now calls former idol Alex Ovechkin a friend For Wild s lopsided offense it s too early for celebration or concern