Overtime victory gives Wolves vital points in division race
The Wolves picked up an important two points in the Central Division postseason race with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Wild on Wednesday night in Iowa.
Bradly Nadeau scored two goals — including the winner in overtime — and added an assist, Ryan Suzuki had a goal and two assists and Felix Unger Sorum also scored to propel the Wolves to the win. It marked Chicago’s second consecutive triumph and pulled it to within three points of the Grand Rapids Griffins for third place in the Central.
Playing the second of back-to-back contests — the Wolves defeated the IceHogs 5-4 in a shootout Tuesday night in Rockford — Chicago came out flying against the Wild and put up a three-spot in the first period.
Suzuki started things midway through the opening frame when the veteran forward raced into the offensive zone and unleashed a shot from the left circle that beat Iowa netminder Samuel Hlavaj to the stick side. Nadeau had the lone assist on Suzuki’s ninth goal of the season.
It was Unger Sorum’s turn to light the lamp a short time later with his fifth marker of the season. The rookie forward worked his way into the slot and one-timed a shot off a pass from Sahil Panwar that sailed over Hlavaj’s right shoulder. Panwar and Ty Smith had assists.
The Wolves weren’t done in the first and took a 3-0 advantage while on the power play. Nadeau continued his scorching play when the rookie rocketed a one-timer from the left circle off a terrific cross-ice feed from Juha Jaaska that solved a lunging Hlavaj to the stick side. Jaaska and Suzuki recorded assists.
Iowa didn’t go away as it cut the Wolves lead to 3-2 with scores by Travis Boyd and Michael Milne just 10 seconds apart late in the second.
Milne’s second of the game early in the third evened things at 3-3 and set up Nadeau’s overtime winner.
Skating on the power play, Nadeau ended it with a one-timer past Hlavaj after a feed from Justin Robidas. Suzuki and Robidas had assists on Nadeau’s team-leading 27th goal of the season and fifth in the last three games.
Dustin Tokarski (33 saves) picked up the win in goal for the Wolves while Hlavaj (33 saves) took the loss for the Wild.
Chicago moved to 32-27-3-0 on the season while Iowa dropped to 22-33-5-1.