4
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Chicago
5
The Chicago Wolves finished off their stint in Des Moines on a high note, defeating the Iowa Wild 5-4 on Friday night at Wells Fargo Arena.
Forward Tyler Wong notched the first two-goal game of his professional career while forwards Daniel Carr and Tomas Hyka and defenseman Nic Hague all added goals for Chicago (12-9-2-1) in the high-scoring affair.
Iowa (13-4-4-2) had a response for every Chicago goal through the first two periods, seeing goals from Colton Beck, Gerry Fitzgerald and Mitch McLain, but the Wolves had the final say with Hyka’s goal midway through the third period.
Wong opened the scoring early, giving the Wolves a lead 4:15 into the game. Swinging around from behind the net as defenseman Zach Whitecloud shot from the point, Wong capitalized on the loose puck that landed in front of him after Iowa blocked Whitecloud’s initial shot.
A tip from Beck tied the game up at the 8:06 mark, but Wong lit the lamp again at 9:26 to give Chicago another lead. Wong shot from the high slot, then crashed in for his own rebound and slipped the puck around the extended left pad of goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen.
The Wild responded again with 2:25 remaining in the first period by scoring on an odd-man rush, but Carr put away a nifty backhander with less than a minute remaining to send the Wolves into intermission with a 3-2 advantage. Carr wrangled in a stretch pass from forward Brandon Pirri at the far blue line, skating in on Kahkonen with the puck on his forehand before drawing it to his backhand and shelving it over a diving Kahkonen.
McLain’s first goal of the night at 4:56 of the second tied the contest once again, but Hague tallied his second power-play goal in as many games just seven seconds after the Wolves went on their first man-advantage. Chicago won the faceoff to the right of Kahkonen, cycling the puck up to defenseman Erik Brannstrom at the point. Brannstrom dished across the ice to Hague, who one-timed a rocket past the goaltender at7:02.
McLain scored again at 9:47 and the teams played with a 4-4 tie for more than20 minutes until Hyka’s game-winner at the 10:09 point in the third. Dylan Coghlan received a quick pass from forward Keegan Kolesar and shot a laser toward Hyka, who redirected the shot into the net to give the Wolves the lead for good.
Max Lagace (6-5-1) made 22 saves in the victory while Kahkonen (6-2-4) finished the night saving 21 of 26 shots.
