Wolves win season opener

HOUSTON -- The Chicago Wolves opened their 14th season with 3 goals in the first period and added another midway through the final period to defeat the Houston Aeros 4-2 at the Toyota Center Saturday night.

Center Steve Martins and right wing Jesse Schultz each added a goal and 2 assists in the victory, as goaltender Ondrej Pavelec stopped 21 of 23 shots in his professional debut.

Martins netted what proved to be the game-winner on the power play at 15:42 of the first period. Defenseman Brian Fahey received the puck from Schultz near the left faceoff circle and ripped it toward the net, where Houston goaltender Nolan Schaefer made the initial save. But Martins was there to hammer the rebound into the back of the net to put the Wolves up 3-0.

The Wolves scored their first goal of the 2007-08 season just 70 seconds into the game, when center Alexandre Giroux fed a pass across to Schultz, who deflected the puck off the post and past Schaefer to put the visitors up 1-0. The Wolves pushed their lead to 2-0 at 10:05 of the opening period when right wing Darren Haydar worked the puck out from behind the net to defenseman Grant Lewis at the point, and Lewis fired a shot into a scrum in front of the net. Center Jason Krog batted the flying puck out of the air and into the goal for his first goal of the season.