Rattie’s OT goal gives Wolves win over Wild
Rookie right wing Ty Rattie’s one-time blast with 29 seconds left in overtime lifted the Chicago Wolves to a 3-2 victory over the Iowa Wild on Saturday night before 11,123 at Allstate Arena.
Rattie scored twice and Dmitrij Jaskin added a goal for the Wolves (25-16-2-2), who won for the seventh time in a string of eight consecutive home games decided by 1 goal. Matt Climie (6-7-0) posted 24 saves in the win.
“Both teams played pretty tight and didn’t give up much tonight,” said Wolves coach John Anderson. “Tough to allow that late goal after taking the lead, but Rattie came up with another big goal for us.”
The Wild (19-16-5-3) opened the scoring at 16:57 of the first period while the Wolves were on their first power play. Iowa gained the puck after a Wolves turnover and center Warren Peters fired a shot past Climie from close range in the slot.
The Wolves evened the score at 9:14 of the third when they won a faceoff and Mark Mancari cycled the puck behind the net. Keith Aucoin battled to tap it to Jaskin, who banked the puck off an Iowa defenseman’s skate from below the goal line past an unsuspecting Johan Gustafsson.
Rattie delivered the go-ahead goal at 17:07 with a one-timer from the left faceoff dot past a sprawling Gustafsson, who couldn’t slide to his right quickly enough to make the save. Alexander Bolduc started the play by claiming the puck along the right boards and centering it into the slot for defenseman Mark Cundari, who backhanded it to Rattie for his team-high 16th goal of the year.
The Wild tied the game with 20 seconds remaining after pulling Gustafsson for an extra attacker. Center Zack Phillips delivered top-shelf from the right circle to send the game into extra time.
Rattie and Cundari again combined to score the game-winner at 4:31 of overtime. Cundari claimed the puck in the neutral zone and wiggled along the blue line to give Rattie time to jump into the play. Rattie collected Cundari’s pass at the top of the right circle and fired it over Gustafsson (8-9-2, 26 saves).
The Wolves host the Utica Comets at 11 a.m. Tuesday, the team’s final school-day game of the season.