Wolves' rally falls short; series tied
The Chicago Wolves fought back from a 3-goal deficit in the game's final 10 minutes to narrow the Rockford IceHogs' lead to 1 but couldn't come up with the equalizer.
That left the Wolves with a 3-2 loss Wednesday night in Game 4 of the West Division finals at the Rockford MetroCentre. The series is tied at 2 wins apiece.
The division final heads back to the Allstate Arena for Game 5 on Friday at 7:30 p.m. The home team has won every game so far.
After failing to get anything going through the first two periods, the Wolves' offense sparked a late rally with 2 goals in a span of just more than three minutes midway through the third period.
Defenseman Brian Fahey put the Wolves on the board to start things off when he hammered home a power-play strike at 10:26 to cut the IceHogs' lead to 3-1.
Just 3:12 later, right wing Jesse Schultz crashed the IceHogs' net and drilled a shot past goaltender Corey Crawford as he sailed by to help the Wolves pull within 1.
The Wolves called goaltender Ondrej Pavelec to the bench with just more than a minute remaining, but an off-sides call sent the face-off back into the Wolves' zone and forced the goalie back in and the extra man off.
"We had a couple bad bounces go against us, but I give them credit. They pressured us," Wolves coach John Anderson said. "I know we can play better."
Pavelec made 27 saves in the loss, while Crawford (5-3) thwarted 32 of 34 Wolves shots for Rockford.