Wolves open road trip by mashing Monsters

The Wolves opened a three-game road trip by defeating the Monsters 4-1 on Friday night in Cleveland.

Rocco Grimaldi had a goal and an assist, Cole Schneider, Domenick Fensore and Dominic Franco also scored and Keith Kinkaid was stellar in goal to lift the Wolves past North Division-leading Cleveland.

After falling behind, the Wolves scored four unanswered goals to earn their second consecutive come-from-behind victory.

After a scoreless opening period, the teams exchanged power-play goals in the middle frame.

First, Trey Fix-Wolansky found the back of the net for the Monsters before the Wolves answered with Cole Schneider’s score. The veteran forward redirected a shot from Grimaldi past Cleveland goaltender Pavel Cajan for Schneider’s ninth goal of the season. Grimaldi and Matt Donovan earned assists on the tally that extended Schneider’s goal-scoring streak to three games.

Fensore put the Wolves out in front midway through the third when the defenseman scooped up a loose puck, wheeled to the point and unleashed a shot that found its way through traffic and by Cajan to the glove side. The unassisted goal was Fensore’s second of the season.

The Wolves kept coming and took a 3-1 advantage 2 minutes, 31 seconds later on Franco’s score. The forward raced toward the Cleveland goal and fired a forehand shot that beat Cajan to the stick side. The tally, unassisted, was Franco’s third of the season.

A short time later, Grimaldi concluded the scoring when the veteran forward sent the puck into an empty net for his team-leading 28th goal of the season. It marked the third consecutive game Grimaldi has had multiple points.

Kinkaid made 25 saves to pick up his second win in a row in goal for the Wolves while Cajan (26 saves) suffered the loss for the Monsters.

Chicago improved to 19-26-3-2 on the season while Cleveland dropped to 31-16-3-3.