Wolves run win streak to 6 games
The Chicago Wolves’ winning streak reached six games after they dispatched the Iowa Wild 4-1 on Saturday night at Allstate Arena.
Charles-Alexis Legault notched his first American Hockey League goal and Trenton Bliss, Noel Gunler and Juha Jaaska also scored to help the Wolves sweep the weekend home-and-home series and extend their points streak to eight contests.
After a scoreless opening period, the Wolves broke the deadlock early in the second when Legault found the back of the net. Teammate Skyler Brind’Amour won a faceoff in the Iowa zone and the puck found Legault at the top of the right circle where the defenseman fired a one-timer that beat Wild goaltender Dylan Ferguson to the stick side.
Iowa knotted the score at 1-1 on David Spacek’s goal midway through the second but the Wolves answered a short time later on Bliss’ first goal of the season.
Playing in his second game with the Wolves after signing a Professional Tryout Contract on Thursday, Bliss knocked in a rebound of his own shot from his knees while in close. Sahil Panwar earned an assist on the score after intercepting a pass in the neutral zone and skating into the Wild zone before feeding Bliss for his initial shot attempt.
The Wolves kept coming and took a two-goal advantage early in the third on Gunler’s goal. The forward raced toward the Wild goal on a two-on-one rush with Scott Morrow, took a pretty pass from his teammate and chipped it into the net. Morrow and Justin Robidas recorded assists on Gunler’s team-leading eighth goal of the season.
Jaaska scored later in the third to make it 4-1 Wolves. The forward pounced on a puck that caromed off the end boards following a shot from Joakim Ryan and sent it past Ferguson for Jaaska’s seventh goal of the season. Ryan had an assist and Robidas added his second helper of the game on the goal.
Ruslan Khazheyev (29 saves) earned the win in goal for the Wolves while Ferguson (37 saves) suffered the loss for the Wild.
Chicago improved to 14-9-2-0 on the season while Iowa dropped to 10-15-1-0.