ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Chicago Wolves got goals from Anttoni Honka, William Lagesson and Oliver Cooper but in the end fell to the Milwaukee Admirals 6-3 on Sunday at Allstate Arena.
In the fourth meeting between the teams this season, the Admirals got a goal and two assists from Egor Afanasyev, a goal and assist each from Jimmy Huntington and Kiefer Sherwood and scores from Spencer Stastney, John Leonard and Tommy Novak to earn the win.
“At times, we were really good,” Wolves coach Brock Sheahan said. “It was tough for us for whatever reason to be committed to how we needed to play. They had numbers back, we turned pucks over and that led to odd-man rushes. When you do that over and over again against good teams you’re going to give up goals. We gave up way too much quality.”
Jamieson Rees added two assists for the Wolves, who came away empty-handed in two weekend games.
The Wolves struck first on Honka’s second goal of the season while Chicago was on the power play. The defenseman’s wrister from the point deflected off an Admirals defender and bounded past Milwaukee goaltender Yaroslav Askarov. It marked the first time the Wolves scored with a man advantage at home this season in 19 power-play opportunities.
Milwaukee notched the next two goals to take the lead. First, Huntington found the back of the net and Stastney scored a short time later to put the Admirals out front 2-1.
With just over a minute remaining in the opening period, Lagesson recorded his third goal of the season when he wired a long shot past Askarov to tie it at 2-2.
Early in the second, Milwaukee seized the lead on a goal by Afanasyev but the Wolves again battled back to tie it at 3-3 on Cooper’s second goal of the season. Midway through the second period, the forward was awarded the goal after Ronan Seeley’s long shot deflected off Cooper and skipped by Askarov.
Leonard’s power-play goal gave the Admirals a 4-3 advantage and Novak’s score gave Milwaukee a two-goal lead after two periods.
Sherwood capped the scoring with an empty-net goal.
Cale Morris made his Wolves debut in goal and suffered the loss despite making 35 saves. Askarov (25 saves) picked up the win in goal for the Admirals.
Milwaukee improved to 8-4-0-0 while the Wolves fell to 4-6-1-0.
Next up: The Wolves travel to Rockford to face the IceHogs on Friday (7 p.m., AHLTV).
For information on Wolves ticket plans for the 2022-23 season — everything from single-game tickets to Flex Packs to group outings — visit ChicagoWolves.com or call 1-800-THE-WOLVES.
