ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Chicago Wolves wrapped up their slate of November games with a 5-1 loss to the Texas Stars on Saturday night at Allstate Arena.
Josh Melnick scored for the Wolves but the Stars got two goals from Marian Studenic and one each from three others to hand the defending Calder Cup champions their fourth consecutive defeat.
“We forced a lot of plays when we didn’t need to,” Wolves defenseman David Farrance said. “We need to get more pucks to the net. We had under 20 shots (18) so we have to shoot more. No one likes losing 5-1.”
Texas got on the board first on a goal by Studenic in the waning seconds of the opening period and Riley Tufte’s goal early in the second extended the Stars’ lead to 2-0.
A shorthanded score by Jacob Peterson later in the second gave Texas a three-goal advantage and Alex Petrovic’s score made it 4-0.
The Wolves finally broke through late in the second when Melnick deflected a long shot by Anttoni Honka past Stars netminder Anton Khudobin. The goal, assisted by Honka and captain Max Lajoie, was Melnick’s third of the season.
Studenic’s second of the game midway through the third capped the scoring.
Cale Morris (24 saves) suffered the loss in goal for the Wolves while Khudobin (17 saves) earned the win for the Stars for the second night in a row.
Chicago dropped to 5-9-2-0 while Texas improved to 9-6-2-2.
Up next: The Wolves travel to Iowa to face the Wild on Dec. 3 (6 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.
