Chicago Wolves open homestand with loss to Cleveland

The Chicago Wolves opened a five-game homestand by falling to the Cleveland Monsters 4-1 on Saturday night at Allstate Arena.

Bradly Nadeau scored his team-leading 19th goal of the season for the Wolves but that was all the offense Chicago could muster as it fell for the third game in a row. Four different Monsters tallied and former Wolves forward Rocco Grimaldi recorded three assists to help Cleveland snap a three-game losing skid in the first of back-to-back contests between the teams.

After a scoreless first period, Cleveland opened a 2-0 advantage after two periods on goals by Dylan Gambrell and Stefan Matteau.

Madison Bowey’s marker padded the Monsters lead but Nadeau’s strike midway through the third period trimmed the Wolves’ deficit.

With the Wolves on the power play, Nadeau took a feed from Justin Robidas and fired a one-timer from the inside edge of the left circle past Cleveland netminder Jet Greaves to the stick side. Robidas and Ty Smith were awarded assists on the score.

Roman Ahcan capped the scoring for the Monsters with an empty-net goal in the waning seconds.

Dustin Tokarski (24 saves) took the loss in goal for the Wolves while Greaves (32 saves) earned the win for the Monsters.