Wolves stay alive with 3-2 win

The Chicago Wolves jumped out to a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes of play and staved off elimination with a 3-2 victory over the San Antonio Rampage in Game 3 of the Western Conference quarterfinals Tuesday night at the Allstate Arena.

Forwards Darren Haydar (2 goals) and Jordan Schroeder scored, while goaltender Eddie Lack stopped 18 shots for the Wolves, who cut their deficit in the best-of-five series to 2-1.

“We had a great start in the first and did a lot of things we set out to do,” Wolves coach Craig MacTavish said. “We let them back in it in the second, but we defended well enough to hang on in the third.”

Chicago opened the scoring at the 12:44 mark of the first period. Schroeder held the puck along the far boards and sent a shot on net that redirected off a defenseman’s stick and over the shoulder of San Antonio goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris.

The Wolves doubled their lead when right wing Mark Mancari faked a shot from the top of the near circle and instead slipped a pass to the far post, where Haydar was waiting to tap home the puck past Grumet-Morris at 19:05.

Grumet-Morris posted 21 saves on 23 shots.

San Antonio got on the scoreboard while on the power play at 16:41 of the second period. Left wing Evan Barlow controlled the puck in the far circle and saucered a pass back door to defenseman Alex Petrovic, who hammered the puck into the back of the net.

Haydar added an empty-net goal at 19:22 of the third period to make it 3-1, but center Bracken Kearns scored the Rampage’s second goal of the night with two seconds remaining to close the scoring.

The Wolves look to even the series when they host the Rampage at 7 p.m. Wednesday.