Chicago Wolves see three-game winning streak come to an end
The Wolves began a season-long, four-game road trip by having their three-game winning streak snapped by the Iowa Wild 6-4 Wednesday night in Iowa.
Chicago got goals from Nick Swaney, Skyler Brind'Amour, Justin Robidas and Felix Unger Sorum, but Iowa prevailed after a three-goal first period.
The Wolves came out of the gates flying as Swaney scored his seventh of the season just 47 seconds into the game. Swaney took a feed from Scott Morrow at the right boards, flew into the Wild's zone and wristed the puck from a bad angle near the right goal line that squeezed by Iowa netminder Jesper Wallstedt. Josiah Slavin was awarded the secondary assist.
The Wild feasted right back on the power play as Hunter Haight scored his 15th of the season 40 seconds after Swaney opened the scoring. Iowa responded with a Brendan Gaunce snap shot from the slot that beat Ruslan Khazheyev just 27 seconds later.
Brind'Amour tied the game with a shorthanded goal for his 12th tally and second shorty of the season — tied for the team-high. Brind'Amour forced a Wild turnover in his own zone, turned on the jets and bolted in on a breakaway before roofing a shot past Wallstedt's shoulder for the unassisted marker.
The high-scoring first period continued as Ryan O'Rourke regained Iowa's lead with a point shot a few minutes later.
Iowa scored its second power-play goal of the night late in the second period when Michael Milne's rebound goal pushed the Wild's advantage to two.
Chicago charged back to tie the game with a pair of goals in 26 seconds from Robidas and a power-play marker from Unger Sorum.
First, the Wild coughed up the puck in the neutral zone and Bradly Nadeau started the counterattack by finding a streaking Robidas at the right boards. He sped past the Wild defender and wristed a shot from the bottom of the right circle that redirected off the Wild defender and past Wallstedt. Nadeau and Scott Morrow assisted on Robidas' 12th goal of the campaign.
On the ensuing shift, the Wolves drew a penalty and went to the power play. Nikita Pavlychev won the offensive-zone faceoff and Domenick Fensore gave Aleksi Heimosalmi a lane to shoot and he rifled a shot from the top of the left circle with traffic in front. The puck was loose in the crease and Unger Sorum deposited it for his fourth goal of the season.
Iowa again retaliated 14 seconds after the Wolves tied it with Haight's second of the game to take a 5-4 lead into the second intermission.
Haight added the dagger in the third with an empty-netter for the hat trick and fourth point of the game as Iowa prevailed.
Wallstedt (27 saves) earned the win for the Wild in goal while Khazheyev (25 saves) took the loss for the Wolves.
Chicago dropped to 27-21-2-0 on the season while Iowa moved to 22-24-5-1.