Tale of the Tape: April 6, 2018 vs. Iowa

ELUSIVE No. 19

The Chicago Wolves enter Friday’s game looking to finally slay the dragon and clinch the franchise’s 19th postseason berth in its 24-year history. The Wolves have been balancing on the verge of clinching since Tuesday when they faced the Milwaukee Admirals as Allstate Arena. All Chicago needed was a regulation victory to punch its 2018 Calder Cup Playoffs ticket. However, the merciless Admirals had other plans and sailed out of Rosemont with a shootout victory. And although the last-place Cleveland Monsters shut out the Iowa Wild the previous night, they could not smother the Admirals on Wednesday. The ball is back in Chicago’s court as they can earn that X with a win in Des Moines.

WELLS IS WHERE THE WINS WERE

Wells Fargo Arena used to be a haven for the visiting Chicago Wolves as they rarely lost in the building. In four years of competition prior to this season, the Wolves only lost once in regulation to the Wild. That changed for the 2017-18 campaign and Chicago is looking to break even at Wells Fargo. Overall, even with a victory, the best record the Wolves can take the season series with is 5-3-0-0 which is just a .625 points percentage. It will be the first season since the clubs began competing that Chicago will finish with less than .778 points percentage in the series

THINGS ARE LOOKING UP

Since the Chicago Wolves dropped a 4-1 decision to the Iowa Wild on Feb. 9, their road game has been much-improved. Including that setback, the Wolves were just 8-10-5-2 on the road. However, since Feb. 21 — their first road game since Feb. 9 — Chicago owns an 8-2-0-0 record. Overall, the team has produced a 16-12-5-2 road record for a .557 points percentage. That’s a big improvement from the .460 points percentage they were hauling through the first four months of the season.

BEAU-NUS ON THE DOT

With three of Chicago’s four regular centers injured — including their top two, Wade Megan and T.J. Tynan — Beau Bennett has risen to the top of the center depth chart and has more than pulled his weight. Since March 28 — when both Megan and Tynan were out of the lineup — Bennett has won 61.7 percent of his draws. On Tuesday — when Tobias Lindberg also was missing from the 19-man game roster — Bennett won 75 percent of his draws.

BEGINNERS LUCK

This year’s rookie class is highlighted by 23-year-old defenseman Jake Bischoff, who leads the first years with 20 points (5G, 15A) in 65 games. He also leads the team with a +19 plus/minus rating. While this season’s rookies have been solid — the group also includes Reid Duke, Kevin Lough, Keegan Kolesar, Ryan Wagner and Tyler Wong — they have not been required to produce as much as the Wolves’ 2016-17 rookie class. This season’s greenhorns have accrued 63 points (17G, 46A) and accounted for 10.9 percent of the Chicago Wolves’ point production. For comparison, last season’s group nabbed 175 points (75G, 100A) and registered more than a quarter — 26.2 percent — of the team’s points. Additionally, rookies Samuel Blais and Vince Dunn combined for 88 points (39G, 49A) — 25 points more than this season’s entire class