Tough night on the road for Chicago Wolves
ROCKFORD — Like so many other Chicago-area commuters, the Wolves needed three times longer than normal to reach their destination Friday night and then enjoyed little satisfaction upon arrival.
After taking more than three hours to inch from Rosemont to Rockford during the snowstorm — requiring the opening faceoff to be delayed for an hour — the Wolves gave up the first goal 80 seconds into the game and went on to suffer a 3-2 loss to the Rockford IceHogs in an Illinois Lottery Cup contest.
Rockford’s Rostislav Olesz registered the game-winning goal at 10:12 of the second period. His goal came shortly after Jordan Schroeder and Darren Haydar had scored to pull the Wolves even.
The Wolves (21-15-1-3), who host the IceHogs today at 7 p.m., fell behind when Rockford’s Rob Flick flipped a backhander past goaltender Matt Climie (22 saves) just 1:20 into the contest.
The IceHogs led 2-0 when Brandon Pirri knocked in his own rebound at 12:41 of the first period.
Schroeder pulled the Wolves within 2-1 at 6:33 of the second period with his 11th goal of the year on a Tim Miller assist.
Schroeder assisted on Haydar’s 12th goal and 99th of his Wolves career that tied the game at 2-2 at the 8:28 mark.