Wolves in final push for playoff bid
The Blackhawks aren’t the only Chicago hockey team fighting for their playoff lives.
The Chicago Wolves are in the same boat as they head into this do-or-die weekend on the outside looking in as they prepare to travel to Peoria on Friday before returning home to host San Antonio on Saturday and Rockford on Sunday.
But first things first.
“We’re trying to get prepared for that one game — the Peoria game,” said Wolves coach Don Lever. “We pretty well know them by heart — we played them five times last month — so it’s just been a refresher and trying to get everybody healthy, work on our system a little bit and try to keep everybody as loose as possible. We don’t have to look at the standings to find out where we are.”
That would be in sixth place in the West Division with 86 points in 77 games, one point behind fifth-place Oklahoma City (87 points in 77 games), and four points behind Peoria (90 points in 78 games) and Texas (90 points in 77 games). San Antonio is in seventh place, one point behind the Wolves (85 points in 77 games). The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs.
”We’re positive. We know what we have in the room,” said Wolves winger Darren Haydar. “We have a very good group of guys, we just have to be consistent throughout the weekend.
“We seem to have lacked in that department the majority of the year and I think we have to focus. We can’t look ahead, we can’t worry about what other teams are doing. We have to take care of our business, because if we can’t take care of our business, it’s not going to happen anyway.”
That means winning at least two of their final three game and hoping for a little help. The Wolves are aiming higher than that.
”All the veterans on the team who have been through this just say you have to have a short memory,” captain Jason Krog said. “Each game is important and you have to play it like a playoff game, but you can never get too high or too low, you have to try to keep an even keel and stay positive.
“Everyone in our dressing room believes that we’re going to make the playoffs and that’s what we’re focusing on.”