Sopel hits milestone, but Wolves fall to Monsters

CLEVELAND - A night that started off as a celebration turned sour as the Chicago Wolves fell 3-2 to the Lake Erie Monsters on Wednesday at Quicken Loans Arena.

The Wolves began the evening by honoring defenseman Brent Sopel, who skated in his 1,000th regular-season game as a professional. But following early goals by forwards John McCarthy and Philip McRae, the tide turned in Lake Erie's favor.

The Wolves (13-7-3-0) grabbed the lead when McCarthy notched his first goal of the season 6:29 into the game. McCarthy broke on a 2-on-1 rush with Yannick Veilleux and used the winger as his decoy, firing a shot top-shelf past Lake Erie goaltender Calvin Pickard's glove.

McRae gave the Wolves a 2-0 lead later in the period on a power play. Defenseman Petteri Lindbohm threaded the forward a pass just above the faceoff dot, and McRae rifled the puck high into the net at 13:49.

The Monsters (8-8-2-2) took over after that, scoring the next 3 goals to grab their first lead of the game and the season series. The Monsters quickly got on the board after the Wolves' second goal when forward Daniel Maggio scored off a bad angle as the puck eluded goaltender Matt Climie.

Late in the first period, the Monsters netted the equalizer when defenseman Markus Lauridsen took an innocent shot from high in the zone that had deflected off a player in front and sneaked the puck inside the far post at 18:57.

A turnover gave center Colin Smith the puck and the Monsters the lead early in the second period. Right wing Kenny Ryan fed a pass to the crease for Smith, who had sneaked behind the defense to Climie's blind spot for an easy tap-in - and what proved to be the game-winner 2:50 into the second period.

Despite outshooting the Monsters, the Wolves were unable to tie and saw their two-game winning streak snapped. Climie (7-5-2) made 20 saves, while Pickard (4-4-3) kicked out 24 shots.

The Wolves remain in Cleveland for a rematch against the Monsters at 6:30 p.m. Friday.