ROSEMONT, Ill.—The Wolves faced off against the Tucson Roadrunners in the first of back-to-back games between the teams Friday night at Allstate Arena.
Isaac Ratcliffe, Cory Conacher, Max Comtois and Chris Terry scored and Keith Kinkaid was stellar in goal to lift the Wolves to a 4-1 victory over the Roadrunners. Despite being outshot 32-15, the Wolves captured their second win in a row and extended their points streak to three games.
“Finally, we have a game like that where maybe we weren’t playing our best game but we end up on the right side of things,” Conacher said. “Keith is goalie that maybe hasn’t gotten his bounces and things haven’t gone his way for part of this season but the last couple of games … he looks confident in net.
“He made some early saves to keep us within striking distance and we were fortunate to get a few goals for him,” Conacher added.
The Wolves got off to a fast start when Ratcliffe found the back of the net 2 minutes, 15 seconds into the opening period on Chicago’s first shot on goal. Ratcliffe pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Roadrunners goaltender Matthew Villalta to the stick side. Dominic Franco and Kyle Marino earned assists on Ratcliffe’s sixth goal of the season.
Despite being outshot 14-2, the Wolves held a 1-0 advantage after one period.
Tucson evened the game at 1-1 just :56 into the second on a goal by Jan Jenik but the Wolves seized the lead later in the period on Conacher’s score.
With the Wolves on the power play, Conacher received a pass from Domenick Fensore and wired a one-timer from the top of the right circle that sailed past Villalta’s stick and into the net. In addition to Fensore, Josh Melnick picked up an assist on Conacher’s third goal of the season.
“I’ve scored a few in that area and for whatever reason haven’t been able to get many shots off from there on the power play,” Conacher said. “Our power play has been clicking. We’ve been out-working teams. It was a nice play by Fensore to get it over to me and a good screen by Ratcliffe—it was nice to see that go in the back of the net.”
Conacher’s score came on the Wolves’ fourth shot of the game and they ended the second having been outshot 27-7 but holding a 2-1 lead.
In the third, Comtois’ eighth goal of the season extended the Wolves’ lead to 3-1. The forward banged a rebound of a Matt Donovan shot by Villalta’s glove from in close. Donovan and Nathan Sucese had helpers.
Terry made it 4-1 Wolves later in the third when the veteran scored off a goal-mouth scramble for his 12th goal of the season. Tory Dello and Donovan had assists. For Donovan, it was the defenseman’s team-leading 28th assist on the season.
Kinkaid (31 saves) earned the victory in goal for the Wolves while Villalta (11 saves) suffered the loss for the Roadrunners.
The Wolves improved to 10-15-3-2 on the season while Tucson dropped to 19-10-1-1.
Next up: The Wolves host the Tucson Roadrunners on Saturday 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.
