Wolves erase Marlies; Cup Finals next

Their opponent took a stand, but the Chicago Wolves finally made the Toronto Marlies take a seat in the AHL's Western Conference finals.

Responding to a 2-goal deficit and killing a five-minute penalty, the Wolves made good on a second opportunity to advance to the Calder Cup Finals with a 4-2 victory in Game 5 Friday night at the Allstate Arena.

"The pressure was on us tonight," Wolves coach John Anderson said. "We wanted to win so we didn't have to go back to their building."

The Wolves advanced to their sixth championship berth in franchise history and third Calder Cup Finals since joining the AHL in 2001-02.

Darren Haydar's power-play goal off a set play with 5:08 to go in the third period put the Wolves ahead, and Kevin Doell's empty-netter with 42 seconds remaining provided the final margin.

Earlier, strong penalty-killing -- especially from goaltender Ondrej Pavelec -- gave the Wolves a chance when it appeared Toronto might be headed home with a chance to even the series.

"He's been our backbone and he's the reason we're going to play for the Calder Cup," Haydar said of Pavelec, who made 23 saves, including a couple of incredible ones on a Toronto flurry near the net.

With the score tied at 2-2 and about 14 minutes to go in the third, Andre Deveaux was given a game misconduct for kneeing Chris Harrington.

The Wolves were down a man for five minutes, but Pavelec's quick work -- one of his saves glanced off his mitt and then off the crossbar -- put the Wolves in position to win.

"That one save saved the series maybe," Anderson said. "It was unbelievable. You know you're going to give one up, you just hope it's not there. … Again, your best penalty-killer is your goalie."

Haydar said his go-ahead goal was a bit lucky. He poked in a long pass from Joel Kwiatkowski for his eighth career playoff goal. The Wolves' power play went 3-for-9.

"Just looking to get a little stick on it," Haydar said. "The key for us was to keep getting opportunities on the power play. Sooner or later …"

Responding to Toronto's early lead, Kwiatkowski and Bryan Little each scored a goal in the second period to tie the score.

The Wolves have three titles, the most recent coming in 2002. They were swept in the 2005 Calder Cup Finals.

"The hunger burns to win another one," Haydar said.