ROSEMONT, Ill. – Jeremy Welsh’s second-period goal stood up as the game-winner as the Chicago Wolves evened their Western Conference Quarterfinals with a 2-1 victory over Utica on Friday night at Allstate Arena.
ROSEMONT, Ill. – Jeremy Welsh’s second-period goal stood up as the game-winner as the Chicago Wolves evened their Western Conference Quarterfinals with a 2-1 victory over Utica on Friday night at Allstate Arena.
Defenseman Brent Regner scored a goal and added an assist for the Wolves (1-1) while goaltender Jordan Binnington rejected 30 of 31 shots to earn the win. The scene shifts to Utica for the rest of the best-of-five series with Game 3 at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
“I thought our goalie was the best player on the ice tonight,” said Wolves head coach John Anderson. “I thought we did a lot of good clearing. We didn’t give them a ton of good cycles in our zone.”
“I felt confident and the team was doing a very good job of blocking out and I was able to see the majority of the shots,” Binnington said. “In the playoffs, you need that extra compete level and I think our team has that.”
The Wolves opened the scoring with Regner’s power-play goal 1:10 into the second period. Chicago opened the stanza on the man advantage and worked the puck patiently until Regner authored a blast from the right point that was set up by Magnus Paajarvi and Pat Cannone.
Utica knotted it 1-1 on Hunter Shinkaruk’s goal at 10:10 of the second. The Comets launched a counter-attack down the right side and Shinkaruk sneaked in the back door and tapped home a pass from Alexandre Grenier.
The Wolves wasted little time regaining the lead for good with Welsh’s goal at 11:52. Jani Hakanpaa wristed a low shot from the right point just as Welsh streaked across the slot for a redirect past Utica goaltender Jacob Markstrom.
Utica removed Markstrom for an extra attacker with 1:25 remaining in regulation, but the Comets managed just two shots as the Wolves kept clearing the puck out of the zone. Markstrom (1-1) notched 20 saves in the loss.
Tickets for the Western Conference Semifinals go on sale at noon Saturday. To get the best playoff ticket deals, visit ChicagoWolves.com or call 1-800-THE-WOLVES.
WOLVES 2, COMETS 1
Utica 0 1 0 — 1
Chicago 0 2 0 — 2
First Period—None. Penalties—Conacher, Utica (roughing), 1:51; Lindbohm, Chicago (holding), 4:54; Conacher, Utica (goaltender interference), 8:47; Harper, Chicago (holding the stick), 10:35; Burish, Chicago (tripping), 14:43; Cracknell, Chicago (interference), 17:08; Archibald, Utica (tripping), 20:00.
Second Period—1, Chicago, Regner 1 (Paajarvi, Cannone), 1:10 pp; 2, Utica, Shinkaruk 2 (Grenier, Sanguinetti), 10:10; 3, Chicago, Welsh 1 (Hakanpaa, Regner), 11:52. Penalties—Ehrhardt, Utica (delay of game), 2:47; Lindbohm, Chicago (roughing), 12:41; Edmundson, Chicago (interference), 16:43.
Third Period—None. Penalties—Grenier, Utica (delay of game), 3:30; Shinkaruk, Utica (hooking), 14:01.
Shots on goal—Utica 11-8-12—31; Chicago 3-11-8—22. Power plays—Utica 0-6; Chicago 1-6. Goalies—Utica, Markstrom (20-22); Chicago, Binnington (30-31). Referees—T.J. Luxmore and Tim Mayer. Linesmen—Ryan Gibbons and Jim Scarpace.
