Big win still leaves coach wanting more

It's tough to please Chicago Wolves coach John Anderson. Maybe that's why he has been so successful.

Even after his Wolves thumped the Rockford IceHogs 7-3 on Saturday night at the Allstate Arena to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Calder Cup West Division final series, Anderson warned his team it needs to be even better.

"We've got to be way more disciplined in our systems," said Anderson, who watched the IceHogs fight back from an early 3-0 deficit to climb within 4-3 in the third period.

"It was a little disappointing to see them come back like that on a couple big mistakes, but maybe that's a lesson well learned," Anderson said. "Thank goodness we had the firepower to come out of it.

"I'm not overly happy with the way we played overall. We're going to have to play better if we want to win this series."

The Wolves got 3 goals in the first period from Joe Motzko, Darren Haydar and Steve Martens.

Then after Rockford pulled within 4-3 early in the third period, the Wolves exploded for 3 more goals in the game's final 11 minutes.

The series switches to Rockford tonight for Game 3, and the Wolves are expecting the IceHogs to be revved up in their own building.

"With home arenas, theirs is the same thing as us playing here," Haydar said. "Guys are more comfortable, but playoffs are a little different and hopefully we can surprise them in their own building."

Wolves goaltender Ondrej Pavelec was solid again, stopping 42 of 45 shots to win his fourth straight game.

Rockford goalie Corey Crawford faced 38 shots and didn't see at least 2 goals.

"You've got to have traffic against him," Haydar said.

"It's hard to believe in a 7-3 game both goaltenders stood on their head," Anderson said.

Haydar scored 2 goals and both were on the power play, giving the Wolves 5 in the first two games. Haydar has 6 goals in eight playoff games.

Haydar's goal at 7:17 of the first period was on the power play with Martin St. Pierre serving a roughing penalty and made it 2-0.

Motzko's goal that opened the scoring at 5:39 was an unofficial power-play goal, coming just four seconds after a cross-checking penalty to Jake Dowell expired.

"We took undisciplined penalties again to start the game and they made us pay for it," Rockford coach Mike Haviland said.

Said Haydar: "It's always a great thing when you score some power-play goals early. To score early like that is definitely a boost to our team, but we can't let teams get back in the game. That's something we can't do if we want to win a championship."

The Wolves took a 3-1 lead to the third period and stretched it to 4-1 on Colin Stuart's short-handed goal at 1:15.

Goals by Petri Kontiola and Bryan Bickell made it 4-3, but the Wolves got their second wind and goals from Bryan Little, Boris Valabik and Haydar to finish it off.