Wolves earn 4-1 victory over Icehogs
ROSEMONT - Evan Trupp scored the first and last goals and Jordan Binnington stopped 36 shots as the Chicago Wolves earned a 4-1 victory over the Rockford IceHogs on Friday night in an Illinois Lottery Cup clash at Allstate Arena.
Ivan Barbashev and Danny Kristo also tallied for the Wolves (27-28-5-3), who seized the lead 2:40 into the game and never let it go.
"I thought Binnington really stood in there with a lot of traffic in front," said Wolves head coach John Anderson. "One game at a time. A win always picks you up and makes you feel better."
The Wolves broke on top with Trupp's fifth goal of the season. Ty Rattie launched a slapshot from just inside the blue line that flew over the goal, but banged off the glass hard toward the crease. That's where Trupp positioned himself to squeeze the rebound past Rockford goaltender Drew MacIntyre.
Chicago pushed the lead to 2-0 at 12:29 of the first as Barbashev knocked home a rebound. Emerson Clark forced a turnover at the blue line, which led to Zach O'Brien firing a shot from the right circle. McIntyre kicked that aside, but the rebound went right to Barbashev in the slot for his 10th goal.
The Wolves seized a 3-0 lead on Kristo's goal 4:22 into the third. Clark and Andre Benoit set him up with a 1-on-1 opportunity against MacIntyre, who got a piece of Kristo's quick wrister from the right circle but couldn't corral the puck before it crossed the goal line.
Binnington carried his shutout until 3:05 remained. Defenseman Ville Pokka fired a rising wrister from the right point that whizzed through traffic and into the top right corner of the net for the IceHogs (34-17-7-4).
The Wolves answered with Trupp's second goal of the night - an empty-net tally courtesy of an unselfish Rattie pass - with 1:15 to play.
Binnington pushed his record to 14-13-5 while MacIntyre (18 saves) dropped to 13-14-1.
The Wolves travel to Rockford for another Illinois Lottery Cup contest at 7 p.m. Saturday before returning to Allstate Arena at 3 p.m. Sunday to face the Milwaukee Admirals in an Amtrak Rivalry game.