Chicago Wolves knock off Rockford behind two Suzuki goals

Ryan Suzuki scored twice, Bradly Nadeau had a goal and two assists and Evan Vierling also tallied to propel the Chicago Wolves to a 5-2 victory over the Rockford IceHogs on Saturday night in Rosemont. Felix Unger Sorum chipped in two assists as Chicago won its third in a row. Meanwhile, Rockford had its two-game winning streak snapped.

The Wolves struck first on Vierling’s tally six minutes, four seconds after opening puck drop. The forward broke into the Rockford zone on an odd-man rush, took a cross-ice feed from Nikita Pavlychev and beat IceHogs netminder Owen Flores from close range. Pavlychev and Unger Sorum had assists on Vierling’s 10th goal of the season.

The IceHogs tied it midway through the first on Rem Pitlick’s power-play tally. The forward pounced on a loose puck between the rings and blasted it past Wolves goaltender Cayden Primeau.

Nadeau’s 12th goal of the season 2:44 later staked the Wolves to a 2-1 lead. The forward took a pass from fellow 2026 AHL All-Star Justin Robidas and wired a shot from the right circle that solved Flores to the glove side. Robidas had the lone helper on the score.

Chicago’s offense, which scored five times in the Wolves’ victory over the Admirals on Friday night in Milwaukee, remained red-hot as Suzuki found the back of the net with 3:34 left in the first. Nadeau spotted Suzuki streaking to the net and put the puck right on his teammate’s stick and Suzuki banged a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle by Flores to the stick side. Nadeau and Ronan Seeley recorded assists.

Midway through the second, the Wolves were skating with a five-on-three man advantage and cashed in on the power play on Suzuki’s second goal of the game. The veteran forward followed up a rebound on his own shot, batting the puck into the net from the doorstep for a 4-1 Wolves lead. On Suzuki’s sixth goal of the season, Nadeau and Unger Sorum notched assists.

Trikozov made it 5-1 with an empty-netter late in the third. Josiah Slavin and Dominik Badinka assisted on Trikozov’s fourth of the season.

In the waning seconds, Kevin Lombardi scored with Rockford on the power play for the final margin.

Primeau (36 saves) earned the win in goal for the Wolves, while Flores (14 saves) suffered the loss for the IceHogs.

The Wolves improved to 18-9-4-4 on the season while Rockford dropped to 15-20-2-2.

The Wolves travel to Rockford to face the IceHogs on Sunday.