Welsh nets the winner for Wolves to knot playoff series at 1

Jeremy Welsh's second-period goal stood up as the game-winner, lifting the Chicago Wolves to a 2-1 win over the Utica Comets that evened their Calder Cup Western Conference quarterfinal series at a game apieace on Friday at Allstate Arena in Rosemont.

Defenseman Brent Regner scored a goal and added an assist for the Wolves (1-1), while goaltender Jordan Binnington rejected 30 shots. The scene shifts to Utica for the rest of the best-of-five series with Game 3 at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

"I thought our goalie was the best player on the ice tonight," said Wolves coach John Anderson. "I thought we did a lot of good clearing. We didn't give them a ton of good cycles in our zone.

"I felt confident and the team was doing a very good job of blocking out and I was able to see the majority of the shots," Binnington said. "In the playoffs, you need that extra compete level and I think our team has that."

The Wolves opened the scoring with Regner's power-play goal 1:10 into the second period. The Wolves opened the period on the man advantage and worked the puck patiently until Regner authored a blast from the right point that was set up by Magnus Paajarvi and Pat Cannone.

The Comets knotted it at 1-1 on Hunter Shinkaruk's goal at 10:10 of the second. The Comets launched a counterattack down the right side and Shinkaruk sneaked in the back door and tapped home a pass from Alexandre Grenier.

The Wolves wasted little time regaining the lead for good on Welsh's goal at 11:52. Jani Hakanpaa wristed a low shot from the right point just as Welsh streaked across the slot for a redirect past Utica goaltender Jacob Markstrom.

The Comets removed Markstrom for an extra attacker with 1:25 remaining in regulation, but Utica managed just 2 shots as the Wolves kept clearing the puck out of the zone. Markstrom (1-1) notched 20 saves in the loss.