Chicago Wolves end two-game drought with win over Wild

The Chicago Wolves snapped a two-game losing skid by dispatching the Wild 3-1 on Wednesday night in Iowa.

Justin Robidas and Ryan Suzuki each had a goal and an assist and Noel Gunler also scored to lift the Wolves. Chicago remained two points behind the Grand Rapids Griffins for third place in the Central Division with two games remaining in the regular season.

The Wolves came out strong and struck early in the opening period on Robidas’ 19th goal of the season. The rookie forward crashed the net and shoveled a deft pass from Suzuki past Iowa netminder Jesper Wallstedt to the blocker side. Suzuki and Juha Jaaska recorded assists on the tally that came on the Wolves’ first shot of the game.

Robidas returned the favor and set up Suzuki for a tally early in the second. The teammates broke into the Wild zone two-on-one and Robidas fed Suzuki, who then ripped a one-timer by Wallstedt from in close. In addition to Robidas, Joel Nystrom earned an assist for the defenseman’s first professional North American point.

The Wolves kept coming and took a 3-0 advantage 4 minutes, 16 seconds later on Gunler’s power-play marker. In his first game since returning from an injury that sidelined him for a month, Gunler fired a one-timer from between the rings off a pass from Nikita Pavlychev that zipped by Wallstedt to the stick side. Pavlychev and Nick Swaney had assists on Gunler’s 13th goal of the season.

Ben Jones’ goal early in the third brought the Wild to within 3-1, but the Wolves cruised the rest of the way for the victory.

Spencer Martin (18 saves) earned the win in goal for the Wolves while Wallstedt (13 saves) suffered the loss for the Wild.

Chicago, which killed off all six Iowa power plays, improved to 36-30-4-0 on the season while Iowa dropped to 27-37-6-1.