ROSEMONT, Ill.—The Wolves wrapped up the 2023 portion of their American Hockey League schedule with a 4-3 loss to the Cleveland Monsters in overtime Saturday night at Allstate Arena.
Rocco Grimaldi had a goal and an assist while Cory Conacher and Chris Terry also scored but the Wolves couldn’t hold off the North Division-leading Monsters and dropped their fourth game in a row—though Chicago did earn a point with the overtime loss.
Matt Donovan added three assists and Adam Scheel had a strong game in goal with 43 saves for the Wolves but Cleveland extended its winning streak to seven after Owen Sillinger scored with one second remaining in OT.
“That’s tough,” Donovan said of the last-second loss. “We wanted to get that one for Scheel—he made a lot of good saves. It’s unfortunate how it ended.”
Cleveland got on the board first when Mikael Pyyhtia found the back of the net midway through the opening period and the Monsters made it 2-0 early in the second on Billy Sweezey’s score.
Conacher pulled the Wolves to within a goal a short time later with his second tally of the season. During a goalmouth scramble, the veteran forward banged the puck past Monsters goaltender Jet Greaves. Donovan and Hudson Elynuik each had assists on the goal.
Midway through the second, Grimaldi pounced on a rebound of a Donovan shot and fired it into the open net to knot the score at 2-2. Assists on Grimaldi’s team-leading 18th goal of the season were awarded to Donovan and Josh Melnick.
In the third, the Monsters regained the lead at 3-2 on Sillinger’s score in the early going but the Wolves kept coming and knotted it not long after.
With the Wolves on the power play, the AHL’s top unit cashed in when Terry rifled home his 11th goal of the season with a wrist shot from the right dot that sailed past Greaves to the glove side. Donovan and Grimaldi earned assists. For Donovan, it was the defenseman’s team-leading 26th helper. It also marked the 12th consecutive game the Wolves scored at least one goal with an extra skater.
Sillinger scored the game-winner for the Monsters in the final second of overtime.
“It’s a good thing we battled back—now we know we can do it,” Donovan said. “We have to come out with better starts. Our starts haven’t been good and that’s been hurting us.”
Greaves made 30 saves to earn the win for the Monsters.
The Wolves dropped to 8-15-3-2 on the season while Cleveland moved to 21-7-1-0.
Next up: The Wolves host the Texas Stars on Tuesday night (7 p.m.) at Allstate Arena.
For information on Wolves ticket plans for the 2023-24 season—everything from single-game tickets to Flex Packs to group outings—visit chicagowolves.com or call 1-800-THE-WOLVES.
