ROSEMONT, Ill.—The Wolves continued their busy weekend by falling to the Manitoba Moose 6-2 on Saturday night at Allstate Arena.
Tory Dello and Nathan Sucese scored for the Wolves but Manitoba got two goals each from Parker Ford and Henri Nikkanen to help sweep the set of back-to-back games. With the win, the Moose opened a six-point lead over the Wolves—who are in the midst of three games in three days—for the fifth and final Central Division postseason berth.
“That was a tough one to lose,” Dello said. “We were in it at 1-1 and had power-play chances but didn’t get the puck luck.”
Manitoba seized the lead when Ford found the back of the net early in the opening period.
The Wolves answered later in the first when Dello’s shot from the point found its way through traffic and sailed past Moose goaltender Thomas Milic. Griffin Mendel and Cole Schneider earned assists on Dello’s third goal of the season.
“We talked in the pre-scout (meeting) that we need to get shots through and have people at the net and luckily it went in,” Dello said.
In the second, the Moose took a two-goal lead thanks to special teams as Nikkanen scored shorthanded before Ford notched his second tally of the game with Manitoba on the power play.
Sucese pulled the Wolves to within 3-2 midway through the third with a power-play marker. The forward took a pass from Max Comtois and buried his 18th goal of the season into the net. Comtois and Rocco Grimaldi had assists.
Nikita Chibrikov’s power-play score, C.J. Suess’ empty-netter and Nikkanen’s second of the game provided the final margin.
Antti Raanta (23 saves) suffered the loss in goal for the Wolves while Milic (31 saves) earned the win for the Moose.
Chicago dropped to 21-29-3-3 on the season while Manitoba moved to 26-29-1-1.
The Wolves will wrap up the three-game set against the Iowa Wild on Sunday (3 p.m.) at Allstate Arena.
“This isn’t something you want to dwell on so it’s nice to come back (Sunday) afternoon and try to get two points,” Dello said. “It’s an important time right now—every point matters. We need to start collecting some points.”
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.
