Wednesday, Nov. 15 | 7:00 p.m. | Bell MTS Place
JUST A PHASE
The Chicago Wolves come into tonight’s game looking to snap a three-game winless streak that began Nov. 8 with a shutout loss to the Milwaukee Admirals. The streak is the longest of any kind for the Wolves this season. During the 2016-17 campaign, the Wolves endured a few winless streaks. Through five separate streaks — the longest being five games from March 17-25 — Chicago lost a total of 19 games…all to Central Division opponents. While the Wolves had their share of losses last season, the club still captured the division title for its sixth since joining the American Hockey League in 2001.
BEAU IS BACK
On Tuesday, the Chicago Wolves announced the return of right wing Beau Bennett. The 25-year-old began the 2017-18 American Hockey League season with the Wolves and appeared in five games before being recalled from loan by the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 23. Bennett skated in six games with the Blues, including his 200th career National Hockey League game on Nov. 13 against the Calgary Flames. Until this season, the California native had skated exclusively for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at the AHL level. Selected 20th overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2010 NHL Draft, Bennett remains the highest-drafted California-born player to date.
HOMECOMING
This week marks Winnipeg native Keegan Kolesar’s initial trip to his hometown as a professional player. After skating four seasons in the Western Hockey League and getting traded to the Vegas Golden Knights ahead of the 2017 NHL Draft, Kolesar made his professional debut with the Wolves on Oct. 6 against Texas Stars at H-E-B Center. Despite a three-game detour to the ECHL — where he averaged a point per game with the Quad City Mallards — Kolesar has appeared in all but two games this season for the Wolves. He has yet to score a point, however. He is the only player to appear in at least 10 games for Chicago without a point.
A few other Wolves aren’t far from home: Keith Aulie (Rouleau, Sask.), Bryce Gervais (Battleford, Sask.) and Kenney Morrison (Lloydminster, Alta.) are all within 1,000 kilometers of their hometowns. Aulie’s hometown, Rouleau, is the closest at just 555 kilometers while Morrison’s hometown, Lloydminster, is the farthest of the group at 964 kilometers — and two provinces.
By the Numbers:
- 1: With the secondary assist on Brandon Pirri’s goal at 7:55 of the second period in Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Milwaukee Admirals, defenseman Petteri Lindbohm captured his first point of the 2017-18 season. The 24-year-old is one of seven skaters to appear in all 12 games this season and was the final one of the bunch to collect a point on the season. While Lindbohm hadn’t been showing up on the scoresheet, he has been a physical force when necessary and manned the blue line as one of the Chicago Wolves’ top four defensemen.
- 2: On Nov. 8, center Brandon Pirri returned to the Chicago Wolves lineup after missing six games due to injury. Since his return, Pirri has two goals in his last two games and is second — only behind Teemu Pulkkinen — with a point-per-game average through six contests. With the Wolves only averaging 2.58 goals per game, the team will be looking for Pirri to keep his scoring streak alive.
- 5: One of the Wolves’ two major penalties this season occurred at the 20-minute mark of the first period in Sunday’s contest against the Milwaukee Admirals. Wolves forward Mackenzie MacEachern twice hit Milwaukee defenseman Trevor Murphy in the dwindling seconds of play. Murphy took exception and dropped his gloves. The fight was the first of MacEachern’s professional career and just the second since his junior days with the Chicago Steel in the United States Hockey League. In the three seasons the Michigan native skated for the Michigan State Spartans, he was never assessed either a major penalty or a fighting infraction.
- 12: Just seven skaters have appeared in all 12 Chicago Wolves games this season. Forwards Tomas Hyka, Teemu Pulkkinen, Paul Thompson, T.J. Tynan and Stefan Matteau as well as defensemen Jake Bischoff and Petteri Lindbohm have appeared in every Wolves contest thus far this season. Those seven players have accounted for 45.6 percent of the Wolves scoring this season.
- 130:The Wolves are clicking along at a 4.00-goal-per-game pace. If they can maintain over the course of the season, they will complete the year with 304 tallies. That’s 53 goals better than last season’s 251 markers, which was good enough for third in the entire American Hockey League. Oct. 22 was the first time the Wolves scored fewer than three goals in a game and the club managed to net 15 tallies in the first three contests of the season.
- 304: Sunday’s game against the Milwaukee Admirals marked defenseman Petteri Lindbohm’s 200th professional game. Drafted by the St. Louis Blues in 2012, Lindbohm has skated in 40 National Hockey League games. The majority of his professional contests have been at the American Hockey League level and all 160 of them have been in a Chicago Wolves sweater. Over the course of four seasons, the Helsinki, Finland native has collected 46 points (17G, 29A) and logged 176 penalty minutes. Lindbohm twice has skated in the Calder Cup Playoffs (2015, 2017) with the Wolves and appeared in 14 games. Lindbohm made his North American debut on Oct. 11, 2014, and the next night he netted his first professional goal.
Game Rewind
Sunday, Nov. 12 Milwaukee 3, (at) Chicago 2
- Milwaukee edged Chicago for the second time in as many head-to-head games.
- Forwards Brandon Pirri and Paul Thompson scored for the Wolves.
- Right wing Pontus Åberg netted two tallies while Petter Granberg collected the game-winner.
- Wolves goaltender C.J. Motte turned aside 20 shots while Anders Lindback made 27 saves in the win.
Saturday, Nov. 11 San Antonio 2, (at) Chicago 1
- San Antonio ended its Central Division demolition with its third victory in five road games against Central Division opponents.
- Center Brandon Pirri netted his first goal in his second game back from injury to end the Wolves’ 71-minute, 24-second scoreless streak.
- Former Wolves forwards Andrew Agozzino and Adam Musil both scored for the victory.
- Chicago netminder Kasimir Kaskisuo made 18 saves.
FOLLOW. LISTEN. WATCH.
Listen on Facebook LIVE Watch on AHL LIVEHEAD-TO-HEAD RECORDS
LAST MEETING
Oct. 25, 2017
2017-18 Series
0-1-0-0
2016-17 Series
2-2-0-0
SERIES GAME-BY-GAME
Date | Location | Result |
---|---|---|
10/25/2017 | Allstate Arena | L, 1-3 |
11/15/2017 | Bell MTS Place | |
11/17/2017 | Bell MTS Place | |
01/05/2018 | Allstate Arena | |
02/24/2018 | Bell MTS Place | |
02/25/2018 | Bell MTS Place | |
03/25/2018 | Allstate Arena | |
04/15/2017 | Allstate Arena |