Wolves strike fast, put away Admirals

The Chicago Wolves had every right to be frustrated by what happened Wednesday in Milwaukee when they outshot the Admirals 37-17 only to lose 2-0.

It was a different story Thursday night in Game 5 of the Calder Cup playoffs West Division semifinal.

The Wolves got exactly what they needed, a goal by Brett Sterling less than two minutes into the game, and went on to beat Milwaukee 4-1 at Allstate Arena to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

The Wolves can put away the Admirals by winning Game 6 on Saturday at the Bradley Center.

The Wolves put their first shot past red-hot Milwaukee goalie Pekka Rinne at 1:59 of the first period, a slick wrist shot by Sterling under the crossbar from the left side.

"We had a lot of shots (Wednesday) night and a lot of chances," Sterling said. "He's (an) unbelievable goalie and we know that. We had to get to him early and we were able to do that, which was huge for us."

Not even the 6-foot-5 Rinne had a chance to stop Sterling's perfectly-placed shot.

"That's where I wanted to go and obviously I couldn't have planned it any better," Sterling said. "Sometimes you get it to go exactly where you want it."

The Wolves took a 2-0 lead out of the first period on Darren Haydar's bizarre goal at 9:17.

Nathan Oystrick's shot from the mid-slot went over the net, deflected off the glass, bounced on top of the net and was tapped in out of the air by Haydar.

"Certainly getting one early, at least we could breathe after that," Wolves coach John Anderson said. "Then we got that fluky one. I call it the 'X' factor. You need a couple of breaks every once in awhile to win some hockey games and win championships. We got a few breaks tonight."

The Admirals had a chance to get back in the game early in the second period with a 5-on-3, but the Wolves killed the power play behind goaltender Ondrej Pavelec.

Milwaukee was 0-for-7 on the power play.

"Our goaltender was spectacular on the penalty-kill and that was the difference in the game right there," Anderson said.

Pavelec lost his shutout when the Admirals' Mark Matheson scored with eight seconds to play.

The Wolves got second-period goals from Brian Fahey and Joe Motzko, who made a nice move out of the corner to beat Rinne.

Jason Krog and Steve Martins each had 2 assists for the Wolves. Krog, the American Hockey League's MVP, still doesn't have a goal in the series but has 6 assists.

The Wolves lost center Bryan Little in the second period when he took several stitches around the mouth from a stick, but he will be OK to play Saturday.