Michael Leighton registered his American Hockey League-leading 50th shutout with a 24-save performance for the Chicago Wolves en route to a 3-0 victory over the Cleveland Monsters on Saturday afternoon at Quicken Loans Arena.
Forwards Tobias Lindberg, Wade Megan and Paul Thompson all scored in the final frame for the Wolves (7-12-4-1), who earned the team’s second shutout of the season.
After two hard-fought scoreless periods, Lindberg finally broke through at 7:35 as he spun around high in the slot to avoid a Cleveland defender and found a space to slip the puck past Ivan Kulbakov (0-1-0).
At 12:23, Thompson charged up the slot and redirected a Beau Bennett pass for the team’s second goal.
With Kulbakov on the bench for an extra attacker, Megan potted an empty-net goal with one second on the clock.
In net for Cleveland (8-9-2-2), Kulbakov turned aside 29 of 31 shots while Leighton (4-4-4) earned first-star honors for his milestone performance.
On Tuesday, Dec. 12, the Wolves will meet the Rockford IceHogs for an Illinois Lottery Cup contest at BMO Harris Bank Center. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be streamed on AHLLive.com.
