Chicago Wolves goaltender Kasimir Kaskisuo made 15 saves en route to a 3-1 victory over the San Diego Gulls Wednesday night at Allstate Arena.
In his Wolves debut, rookie defenseman Kevin Lough collected two assists. Forwards Ivan Barbashev, Beau Bennett and Tyler Wong each scored for the Wolves (6-11-4-1).
“Our fourth line got us going,” said Wolves head coach Rocky Thompson. “They went out and had a great shift in the offensive zone and they played hard and kind of inspired the rest of the bench to get going.”
After a scoreless first period, Wong snapped up a loose puck in front of the Gulls net for the 1-0 lead at the 4:34 mark of the second. Lough earned his first AHL point on the play.
Just under three minutes later, Bennett extended the Wolves lead to two goals as he corralled defenseman Jake Walman’s point-shot rebound for the second goal.
The Wolves again capitalized on a rebound opportunity at 10:57 of the third as Barbashev recorded a goal to push Chicago’s lead to 3-0. Lough picked up his second helper of the night.
The Gulls (9-11-1-0) snapped Kaskisuo’s shutout bid at 15:54 of the final session when forward Scott Sabourin caromed the puck off a Wolves skater into the net for the 3-1 score.
Kaskisuo (4-7-1) picked up his third win with the Wolves while San Diego netminder Kevin Boyle (5-6-1) stopped 28 of 31 shots in the loss.
The Wolves travel to Quicken Loans Arena for a pair of games against the Cleveland Monsters. On Friday, Dec. 8, puck drop is set for 6 p.m. and will be broadcast on The U Too. The Saturday, Dec. 9, game is set for noon and will be televised on CW50.