Wolves take ‘big step back’

The Chicago Wolves were blanked by the Charlotte Checkers, falling 5-0 on Peanut Awareness Day at Allstate Arena in Rosemont.

Goaltender Jake Allen made 27 saves for the Wolves (3-5-0-1), who were unable to dent netminder John Muse. He (2-0-0) kicked out 27 shots to post his second shutout in as many games.

“Tonight was disappointing,” said Wolves coach John Anderson. “We played well in our past two games and I thought we were moving forward, but this was a big step back.”

The Checkers (4-2-0-1) broke the scoreless deadlock halfway through the game on a power play. With Chris Porter in the penalty box for boarding, the Checkers got the puck to Chris Terry near the faceoff dot. Terry took an angled shot on Allen’s short side that snuck through his pads.

The Checkers took advantage of a Wolves giveaway to pad their lead four minutes later. Checkers forward Jared Staal stole the puck and sent a backhanded shot toward the net. Allen (3-2-1) made the initial stop, but was unable to snag a rebound shot by Nicolas Blanchard.

The Checkers iced the win with 3 goals in the third period. Justin Shugg and Brody Sutter notched power-play goals and Aaron Palushaj added a marker on a breakaway.