Victory moves Wolves closer to Calder Cup
It's a surprise that officiating didn't ruin Chicago Wolves coach John Anderson's wedding or the birth of his children.
It seems to ruin everything else for him, including the Calder Cup Finals.
Despite beating the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 4-2 Sunday to put the Wolves ahead 2-0 in the series -- something that should have put a smile on his face all the way to Pennsylvania -- Anderson couldn't hide his true emotions in the postgame news conference at the Allstate Arena.
"I'm angry after a win," Anderson said. "How sad is that?"
What put Anderson in such a mood was back-to-back penalty calls in the third period that led to back-to-back goals within 40 seconds for the Penguins. And just like that, the Wolves' comfortable 3-0 lead was cut to 3-2, and they were fighting in the final minutes for the win as they did in Game 1.
Anderson didn't go into specifics of why he disagreed with the calls -- he has been fined enough to know better -- but he did talk about how his team handled it.
"After I finished yelling at the referees, I said, 'Let's get some composure,' " Anderson said.
The Wolves did. Aside from a couple of true scoring opportunities for the Penguins, the Wolves controlled the game's final 15 minutes. They were able to finally relax when Joel Kwiatkowski scored a power-play goal with 1:53 remaining that put them back ahead by 2 goals.
Wolves captain Darren Haydar added to his career postseason success as he scored the game's first 2 goals and became the AHL's all-time leading playoff scorer with 120 points. He also set the record for most postseason goals with 53.
"I take a lot of pride in my game during the postseason," Haydar said. "I want to win a championship at the end of the year."
The game also featured plenty of physical action. It was actually what Kwiatkowski expected.
"It's the Finals," he said. "This is the last series no matter what. Every hit is an investment at this point."
The Wolves will travel to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for Game 3 on Wednesday.