ROCKFORD, Ill.—The Chicago Wolves continued their five-game road trip with a 4-1 victory over the IceHogs on Friday night in Rockford.
Max Comtois had two goals, Cavan Fitzgerald and Tory Dello also scored and Adam Scheel continued his standout play in net to lift the Wolves to their third win in a row and fifth in the last six games.
“We’re starting to click as a team,” Dello said. “Definitely a lot of hard work has gone into it and we’re finally finding our stride. We all thought it was a bit of a tough one (Friday night) but the sign of a good team is when you win when you don’t play your best hockey.”
Scheel, the reigning American League Hockey Player of the Week, made 29 saves to record his third consecutive victory while snapping Rockford’s three-game winning streak. The Wolves, who also got two assists each from Chris Terry and Vasily Ponomarev, have now defeated the IceHogs in all four matchups this season.
The Wolves struck first when Fitzgerald found the back of the net midway through the opening period. The defenseman worked his way toward the net, took a cross-ice saucer pass from Hudson Elynuik, deked to his backhand before squeezing a forehand shot between the left post and Rockford goaltender Mitchell Weeks’ blocker. Elynuik and Dominic Franco were awarded assists on Fitzgerald’s third goal of the season.
Early in the second, the Wolves extended the lead to 3-0 when Comtois and Dello struck 19 seconds apart. First, Comtois took a feed from Terry and fired a one-timer from in close that beat Weeks to the stick side. In addition to Terry, Ponomarev earned an assist on the score.
Chicago kept coming and tallied again seconds later when Dello’s shot from the point eluded Weeks to the stick side. It marked Dello’s first goal of the season and was assisted by Terry and Ponomarev.
“It feels good when you don’t score for half the year and then one goes off a leg and in,” Dello said. “It feels really good to get one.”
Rockford opened the third period on the power play and David Gust cashed in to trim the Wolves’ lead to 3-1.
Later in the third, Comtois put the Wolves ahead 4-1 with his second of the game when the veteran winger cleaned up a rebound of a Terry shot for his 10th goal of the season. Terry recorded the only assist on the goal.
Scheel earned the win for the Wolves while Weeks (19 saves) suffered the loss for the IceHogs.
The Wolves improved to 13-16-3-2 on the season while Rockford dropped to 15-15-3-1.
Next up: The Wolves travel to Manitoba to face the Moose on Tuesday night (7 p.m.).
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.
