Chicago Wolves grab eighth victory in last nine games

The Chicago Wolves kicked off the new year with a 3-2 victory over the Iowa Wild on Thursday night at Allstate Arena.

Austin Wagner and Aleksi Heimosalmi each had a goal and an assist and Ethan Keppen also scored to lift the Wolves to their second win in a row and eighth triumph in their last nine games.

The Wild struck first when Caedan Bankier found the back of the net early in the opening period.

The Wolves’ offense kicked into gear early in the second period with Wagner starting things off. With the Wolves on the power play, Heimosalmi raced into the Iowa zone and flung a pass to a streaking Wagner who then redirected the puck past Wild netminder Samuel Hlavaj to the stick side. Heimosalmi and Joakim Ryan earned assists on Wagner’s fourth goal of the season.

Iowa regained the lead 1 minute, 52 seconds later on Michael Milne’s score, but the Wolves again answered when Keppen notched his first goal of the season 1:26 after that. Sahil Panwar jumped on a loose puck deep in the Wild zone and fed Keppen in front for a one-timer that found its way through Hlavaj to even the game at 2-2 after two periods.

Playing in his first game since missing four with an injury, Heimosalmi staked the Wolves to a 3-2 advantage early in the third. The defenseman took a feed from Wagner and unleashed a wicked wrist shot from the left dot that sailed by Hlavaj to the glove side. Wagner and Justin Robidas recorded assists on Heimosalmi’s third goal of the season.

Spencer Martin (26 saves) earned the win in goal for the Wolves while Hlavaj (21 saves) took the loss for the Wild.

Chicago improved to 16-10-2-0 on the season while Iowa dropped to 11-18-1-0.