Gameday: All in the family

CHICAGO WOLVES (4-0-0-0) AT ROCKFORD ICEHOGS (0-2-1-0)

Tuesday, Feb. 16 | 6 p.m. | Rockford MetroCentre | AHLTV | Facebook Live

ALL IN THE FAMILY, PART 1

After sweeping four games over the first seven days of the 2021 season, the Chicago Wolves finally return to competition after a four-day break. But the Wolves didn’t stop practicing during that stretch — and they didn’t stop adding to their roster. On Monday, the Wolves announced the addition of 23-year-old defenseman Frederic Allard and 30-year-old defenseman David Warsofsky.

Allard, selected two picks after Wolves center Rem Pitlick in the third round of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, has spent the 2020-21 season with Villacher SV in Austria’s top professional league and posted 4 goals and 9 assists in 13 games. Allard was loaned to Chicago by Nashville (NHL) and has 14 goals and 60 assists to show for 181 regular-season games with the Milwaukee Admirals.

Warsofsky, meanwhile, was loaned to the Wolves by Carolina (NHL) after being acquired in a trade with Toronto (NHL) that involved center Alex Galchenyuk. Warsofsky boasts 2 goals and 9 assists in 55 NHL games split between Boston, Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Colorado. He also owns 55 goals and 178 assists in 454 AHL regular-season games. Oh, and he features a set of DNA strikingly similar to the Wolves head coach: his older brother, Ryan Warsofsky.

Ryan and David Warsofsky grew up 30 miles south of Boston with older brothers Adam and Jarod — and all four played hockey at the college level or above.

“Me and my younger brother, David, were really close,” Ryan said. “If it was just him and me after school, we would just play in the driveway. Our garage doors were obviously destroyed. Lots of broken windows. When the winter came, we’d play knee hockey in the basement and it would get aggressive at times and physical.”

According to AHL Vice President of Communications Jason Chaimovitch, the AHL hasn’t had a coach-player brother combo since 1993-94 when Marc Crawford coached his younger brother, Lou, with the St. John’s Maple Leafs.

ALL IN THE FAMILY, PART 2

Last week, David Cotton and Jason Cotton became the second set of brothers to play in the same game for the Wolves. Joe Crowley and Ted Crowley played 16 games together during the Wolves’ inaugural season (1994-95), but more than 2,000 Wolves games happened before the Cottons joined the brothers club during Thursday’s 4-2 win over Grand Rapids. By David’s reckoning, it marked as the first time these brothers from Parker, Texas, played on the same side in an official game.

“We’re a couple years (apart), so we never played on the same team,” David said. “This was the first time we were able to link up and go through this process together. It’s been very special for me — and special for him as well.”

WE ARE THE WOLVES

Six years ago, the Chicago Wolves were contacted by Epic Pictures Group to be an important part of the romantic comedy “Who Gets the Dog?” that starred Ryan Kwanten and Alicia Silverstone. Kwanten played the character Clay Lonnergan, who was a Wolves goaltender.

In early 2015, the movie crew filmed scenes at the Wolves Training Facility as well as during intermission of the Wolves’ 1-0 win over Oklahoma City on Feb. 13, 2015. To make the hockey scenes as realistic as possible, “Who Gets The Dog?” hired several Wolves players to skate during the practice and the game scenes. Brent Sopel and Benn Ferriero were among the Wolves who wore their real jerseys during the game scenes.

LAST TWO GAMES

THURSDAY, FEB. 11: (at) CHICAGO 4, GRAND RAPIDS 2

• Forward David Cotton scored two goals and handed out one assist as the Wolves turned a 2-2 third-period tie into their fourth consecutive win.
• Center Seth Jarvis delivered the team’s first goal for the third time in four games while Tanner Jeannot provided insurance with a short-handed empty-net tally with 1:55 to go.
• Goaltender Beck Warm stopped 26 shots to earn the win in his professional debut..

TUESDAY, FEB. 9: (at) CHICAGO 5, ROCKFORD 2

• Nineteen-year-old forward Phil Tomasino scored his first two goals as a professional and added an assist as the Wolves never trailed in a Tuesday afternoon clash.
• Center Rem Pitlick added two goals — including the game-winner on a shorthanded breakaway — while Seth Jarvis scored and Joey Keane and Tanner Jeannot posted two assists apiece.
• Goaltender Jeremy Helvig posted 23 saves to best Rockford for the second time in four days.

BY THE NUMBERS

1: Rookie center Seth Jarvis, who has scored one goal in each of his first four professional games, shares the American Hockey League lead in goals with Tucson forward Michael Bunting. The 19-year-old from Winnipeg also shares the league lead in first goals with 2 — joining Utica’s Kole Lind and Iowa’s Dmitri Sokolov. He has tallied in the first period of the last three Wolves games, which includes both meetings with Rockford.

3: During the first 26 seasons of Chicago Wolves hockey, players wore 49 different jersey numbers: 1 through 42, 44, 45, 49, 55, 77, 84 and 92. Only four games into this season, three new numbers already have been worn: rookie forward Patrick Harper wears No. 43, veteran defenseman Alex Carrier has donned No. 47 and rookie forward Phil Tomasino wears No. 50.

4: The Wolves are enjoying just the fourth 4-0-0 start in the franchise’s 27-season history. This year’s crew has matched the early-season exploits of the 2012-13 and 2018-19 teams. The only team with a longer opening streak was the 2007-08 squad that jetted to records of 6-0-0-0 and 13-0-1-0 on its way to the 2008 Calder Cup title.

9: The Wolves have scored 17 goals through four games this year — and a league-high nine have been delivered by rookies. Center Seth Jarvis leads the way with four tallies while fellow 19-year-old forward Phil Tomasino owns two — both against Rockford on Feb. 9. Forward David Cotton contributed two Thursday against Rockford while 19-year-old Jamieson Rees notched his first pro goal Feb. 6 at Rockford. The Ontario Reign and Syracuse Crunch are next on the rookie goal-scoring list with six apiece.

14: For a hot minute Monday, it appeared center Alex Galchenyuk and his 135 NHL goals might join the Wolves roster. Instead, he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, so he won’t join the list of Wolves players who have scored at least 100 NHL goals. That 14-man list consists of Rob Brown, Chris Chelios, Doug Crossman, J.P. Dumont, Bryan Little, Kevin Miller, Troy Murray, Brian Noonan, Eddie Olczyk, Steve Reinprecht, Al Secord, Alexander Selivanov, Stephen Weiss and Todd White.

36: Goaltender Beck Warm made his professional debut Thursday against the Grand Rapids Griffins and posted 36 saves while picking up the win. The 21-year-old from Whistler, British Columbia put himself in the same sentence as veteran NHL goaltender Jake Allen with his performance. How so? No goaltender has won his Wolves debut and notched at least as many saves as Warm in said debut since Allen won his first Wolves appearance when he posted 41 saves against the San Antonio Rampage on Oct. 4, 2013.

387: Since the Wolves started playing on Oct. 1, 1994, a total of 676 players have donned the Burgundy and Gold. When forward Drew Shore made his Chicago debut against Grand Rapids on Thursday, he became the 387th player in Wolves history who also has appeared in the NHL. The 30-year-old Shore has seen 95 games of NHL action since making his debut with the Florida Panthers in 2012-13. He spent the last two seasons playing in Russia, but signed with Carolina (NHL) during the offseason and played one game for the Hurricanes before joining the Wolves.

UPCOMING GAMES