The Chicago Wolves fell 4-3 to the Tucson Roadrunners Friday night at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena in their second and final preseason contest.
Forwards Brady Shaw, Ben Jones and Jake Leschyshyn scored for the Wolves while goaltender Oscar Dansk rejected 35 shots.
Shaw opened the scoring 5:26 into first period, deflecting a centering pass into the net past Tucson netminder Erik Kallgren (30 saves). Tucson’s Nate Schnarr scored at the 17:40 mark of the first on the power play to even the score 1-1.
Jones regained the lead 9:59 into the second frame when a shot from defenseman Brayden Pachal went off the end boards and bounced directly to Jones, who slid the puck under Kallgren for a 2-1 advantage,
Jeremy Gregoire scored for Tucson to tie it at 2-2 before Andy Miele tallied a goal at 18:28 to send the Roadrunners into the locker room with a 3-2 lead.
Leschyshyn knotted the game 9:37 into the final period on the power play, slamming home a Paul Cotter rebound to make it 3-3.
Tucson’s Jalen Smereck sent a shot off the post and in at the 13:15 mark of the third to make it 4-3 Roadrunners. The Wolves killed off a late 5-on-3 that included a five-minute major, but didn’t have enough time to forge the game’s fourth tie.
The Western Conference champion Wolves open the 2019-20 regular season at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5, against the Grand Rapids Griffins at Allstate Arena. The first 5,000 fans receive a 2019 Western Conference championship banner courtesy of Jewel-Osco.
