Wolves hold off Stars 4-3

CEDAR PARK, Texas — The Chicago Wolves capped off their Texas road trip by knocking off the Western Conference-leading Texas Stars 4-3 Tuesday night at Cedar Park Center.

Defenseman Jim Vandermeer and forwards Bill Sweatt, Darren Archibald and Mike Davies scored for the Wolves (28-18-4-3). Center Andrew Ebbett added 2 assists to run his points streak to eight games.

Goaltender Matt Climie (16-15-2) stopped 23 of 26 shots.

As they did in their 2-0 victory on Friday at Texas, the Wolves opened scoring in the first period when Vandermeer notched his first AHL goal since the 2004-05 season by burying a cross-crease feed from Steve Pinizzotto at 6:04.

The Stars (33-16-4-5) fired back with a puck redirected by center Travis Morin directly over Climie’s right shoulder at 14:20.

Tied at 1-1 after the first period, the Wolves went quickly to the power play in the second and Sweatt spotted a low-flying pass from Ebbett and batted it into Campbell’s net 2:27 into the period.

Not allowing Chicago to hold its lead for even a minute, Stars right wing Tomas Vincour evened the score by picking up a bouncing puck and rifling it through Climie at 3:23.

Knotted at 2-2, Chicago pulled away with 2 goals in 90 seconds. Archibald scored on a feed from Guillaume Desbiens and then Davies went on a breakaway and finished with a nifty backhander past Campbell to make it 4-2 at 6:53 of the second. Texas chose to swap Campbell out for Cristopher Nilstrop at that juncture.

The Wolvesz held their 2-goal advantage into the third period, but Matt Fraser’s power-play goal pulled Texas within 4-3 at 5:03. That would be all the Stars managed against the Wolves, who outshot their hosts 29-26.

The Wolves wrap up their four-game road trip with an Amtrak Rivalry game Friday at Milwaukee before returning to the Allstate Arena at 7 p.m. Saturday against the Admirals.