Wolves beat Tucson despite being outshot by wide margin

The Wolves faced off against the Tucson Roadrunners in the first of back-to-back games between the teams Friday night at Allstate Arena.

Isaac Ratcliffe, Cory Conacher, Max Comtois and Chris Terry scored and Keith Kinkaid was stellar in goal to lift the Wolves to a 4-1 victory over the Roadrunners. Despite being outshot 32-15, the Wolves captured their second win in a row and extended their points streak to three games.

The Wolves got off to a fast start when Ratcliffe found the back of the net 2 minutes, 15 seconds into the opening period on Chicago’s first shot on goal. Ratcliffe pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Roadrunners goaltender Matthew Villalta to the stick side. Dominic Franco and Kyle Marino earned assists on Ratcliffe’s sixth goal of the season.

Despite being outshot 14-2, the Wolves held a 1-0 advantage after one period.

Tucson evened the game at 1-1 just 56 seconds into the second period on a goal by Jan Jenik, but the Wolves seized the lead later in the period on Conacher’s score.

With the Wolves on the power play, Conacher received a pass from Domenick Fensore and wired a one-timer from the top of the right circle that sailed past Villalta’s stick and into the net. In addition to Fensore, Josh Melnick picked up an assist on Conacher’s third goal of the season.

Conacher’s score came on the Wolves’ fourth shot of the game and they ended the second having been outshot 27-7 but holding a 2-1 lead.

In the third, Comtois’ eighth goal of the season extended the Wolves’ lead to 3-1. The forward banged a rebound of a Matt Donovan shot by Villalta’s glove from in close. Donovan and Nathan Sucese had assists.

Terry made it 4-1 Wolves later in the third when the veteran scored off a goal-mouth scramble for his 12 th goal of the season. Tory Dello and Donovan had assists. For Donovan, it was the defenseman’s team-leading 28 th assist on the season.

Kinkaid (31 saves) earned the victory in goal for the Wolves while Villalta (11 saves) suffered the loss for the Roadrunners.

The Wolves improved to 10-15-3-2 on the season. Tucson dropped to 19-10-1-1.