Wolves lose big at home to Manchester
The Chicago Wolves fell into a 2-goal hole seven minutes into the game and couldn't climb out as they became the last team in the American Hockey League to lose a home game in regulation with an eventual 7-2 loss to the Manchester Monarchs at the Allstate Arena on Tuesday night.
Forwards Joe Motzko and Colin Stuart scored for Chicago (12-5-1-1), which saw its three-game home winning streak snapped with the loss. Goaltenders Dan Turple and Robert Gherson split duty between the pipes in Turple's loss.
Left wing Scott Parse gave Manchester (7-6-0-3) an early 1-0 lead when he banged home a pass from Kevin Westgarth, 5:19 into the first period.
Right wing Teddy Purcell doubled the Monarchs lead, 2-0, 1:41 later when he gained control of the puck off the face off and roofed it over Turple.
A power-play opportunity allowed right wing Joe Motzko to pot his 10th goal of the season to briefly put the Wolves back in the game, 2-1, at 15:41 of the first period. The forward took a pass from center Steve Martins, hesitated and then flung the puck high into the corner of the net by Monarchs goaltender Jonathan Quick.
Quick (3-5-1) posted 29 saves for Manchester.
Manchester regained a two-goal advantage with Purcell's second marker of the game at 2:55 of the second period. Turple came out of the crease to face a shot but the Monarchs sent the puck across to Purcell who deposited it in the open net.
The Monarchs took advantage of a pair of Wolves losing their footing to make their lead 4-1 with a short-handed tally from right wing Trevor Lewis. Manchester stole the puck along the boards and shipped it up the ice, where right wing David Meckler took off on a breakaway, Turple stopped his shot but got caught by Lewis, who was there to knock in the rebound.
Center Justin Azevedo collected a power-play marker at 15:18 of the middle frame, pushing the puck over the line out of a scrum in front of the net and sending Turple (5-2-0) to the bench. Turple notched 16 saves on 21 shots while Gherson made 11 saves in 24:42 of relief duty for the Wolves.
Right wing Bud Holloway beat Gherson on a slap shot from the right faceoff circle to make the Monarch's lead 6-1 82 seconds into the third period and Westgarth added another marker to bring the score to 7-1.
Left wing Colin Stuart took a pass on the doorstep and shoveled it over the goal line for the Wolves second goal of the night with 1:46 remaining to play.
The Wolves open a three-games-in-three-days set on Friday when they travel to Michigan to take on the Grand Rapids Griffins at Van Andel Arena at 6 p.m.