Wolves cruise to victory against Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE - The Chicago Wolves skated to a 5-1 victory over the Admirals on Saturday night in Milwaukee.

Cole Schneider had a goal and an assist while Peter Abbandonato, Max Comtois, Vasily Ponomarev and Isaac Ratcliffe each scored to lift the Wolves to their second win in their last three games.

Matt Donovan chipped in two assists and Keith Kinkaid was strong in goal as the Wolves took the first game of a home-and-home set against their Central Division rivals. The teams will meet again Sunday afternoon at Allstate Arena.

The Wolves jumped to a lead early in Saturday's opening period when Abbandonato's shot from the point eluded Admirals goaltender Yaroslav Askarov. Donovan earned an assist on Abbandonato's first goal of the season.

Late in the first, Mark Jankowski scored to pull Milwaukee even, but the Wolves weren't done in the period.

With 13.1 seconds remaining in stanza, Schneider notched his second goal of the season to put Chicago out in front 2-1. The forward redirected a shot from Tyson Feist from the top of the right circle that bounded past Askarov. In addition to Feist, Cavan Fitzgerlad picked up an assist on the score.

Comtois extended the Wolves' lead to 3-1 midway through the second. The forward broke into the Admirals zone on a two-on-one with Dominic Franco and fired a shot from the left dot that sailed by Askarov to the stick side. The unassisted goal was Comtois' third of the season - with the scores coming in three consecutive games.

The Wolves kept coming in the second and took a 4-1 advantage while on the power play. Ponomarev pounced on a puck in the slot and banged home his second goal of the season, assisted by Chris Terry and Donovan.

In the waning moments of the third, Ratcliffe capped the scoring when he solved Askarov from in close for the forward's fourth goal of the season.

Kinkaid (21 saves) earned the win in goal for the Wolves while Askarov (20 saves) suffered the loss for the Admirals.

The Wolves improved to 3-7-1-1 on the season while Milwaukee fell to 6-6-0-0.