Wolves fall short against Stars
The Chicago Wolves and Texas Stars combined for 6 goals during a 15-minute flurry in the second period, but a goal 68 seconds into the third period gave Texas the upper hand for good in a 4-3 victory at the Allstate Arena on Thursday night.
The Wolves (4-4-1-0) matched a season high with 2 power-play goals, including tallies from Darren Haydar and Andre Deveaux. Riley Holzapfel added the Wolves' other tally.
“It's unfortunate because I really thought our guys worked hard and deserved a better fate tonight,” said Wolves coach Don Lever.
Texas (6-2-0-0) took a 1-0 lead when Mathieu Tousignant blasted a shot from high in the slot past Wolves goaltender Edward Pasquale at 1:59 of the second period.
The Wolves needed just six seconds on their first power play of the second period to even the score at 1-1. Deveaux parked himself in front of the crease and tipped in Paul Postma's shot from the blue line at 4:28.
Texas made it 2-1 at 8:29 of the second period. Luke Gazdic held the puck behind the Wolves' net and fed a pass to forward Tristan King, who was parked at the side of the crease and sent it past Pasquale.
The Wolves retaliated just over two minutes later with a power-play goal from Haydar. A flurry of action in front of the net saw Stars goalie Richard Bachman cough the puck out into the crease, where Haydar succeeded in collecting the rebound and pushing it home.
The Stars answered again to go up 3-2 at 14:09 with a power-play strike of their own. Maxime Fortunus got his stick on the puck in a scrum in front of the net after a King shot and chipped it past Pasquale.
The Wolves tied the score at 3-3 at 16:54 of the second period. Jaime Sifers fed a pass across the ice to Holzapfel, who ripped a shot past Bachman from the left face-off circle.
Bachman (2-0-0) stopped 40 shots.
Fabian Brunnstrom gave Texas a 4-3 lead 68 seconds into the third period when a Wolves skater misplayed the puck in his zone and sent it straight out to Brunnstrom in the slot for a quick blast past Pasquale.
Pasquale (4-2-0) finished with 22 saves.