Chicago Wolves open road trip with first victory of the season

The Chicago Wolves opened a three-game road trip with a rare meeting against the Hershey Bears on Saturday night in Pennsylvania.

Scott Morrow scored the game-winner in overtime and Bradly Nadeau and Brendan Lemieux also had goals to lift the Wolves to a 3-2 victory over the two-time defending Calder Cup champion Bears.

In the first showdown between the teams since Feb. 19, 2006, Spencer Martin made 33 saves to earn the win in goal and Ryan Suzuki chipped in with two assists to propel the Wolves to their first win of the season.

After a scoreless opening period, Nadeau scored his first professional goal midway through the second to put the Wolves in front. Martin started the play with a stretch pass to Suzuki, who then fed Nadeau and the rookie beat Hershey goaltender Clay Stevenson from in close. Martin and Suzuki had assists on the score.

Hershey answered back just 16 seconds later on a power-play goal by Alex Limoges to even the score at 1-1 heading into the third period.

Early in the third, Hershey took the lead on a Pierrick Dube goal but it was the Wolves’ turn to provide a quick answer on Lemieux’s score 13 seconds later. The veteran took the puck to the net and solved Stevenson from a sharp angle to even things at 2-2. Charles-Alexis Legault’s assist on Lemieux’s first goal of the season was the rookie’s first professional point.

Morrow’s first professional goal won it for the Wolves in overtime. The rookie raced into the Bears zone along with Suzuki, took a terrific feed from his teammate and banged home the winner past Stevenson to the glove side. Suzuki and Felix Unger Sorum recorded assists.

Martin was sensational to pick up the win for the Wolves while Stevenson (31 saves) suffered the loss for the Bears.

Chicago improved to 1-1-0-0 on the season while Hershey dropped to 2-1-1-0.