ROSEMONT, Ill.—The Wolves opened the 2024-25 American Hockey League season with a Central Division showdown against the Milwaukee Admirals on Saturday night at Allstate Arena.
Ryan Suzuki scored for the Wolves but it wasn’t enough as the Admirals skated to a 4-1 victory in the battle between the division rivals. Cal O’Reilly led the way for Milwaukee with a goal and three assists. The Wolves outshot the Admirals 32-21 but couldn’t do more damage than Suzuki’s tally.
“We just didn’t capitalize on our chances,” Suzuki said. “But as long as you’re getting the chances, they’re eventually going to go in. You start to worry when you stop getting the chances, not when they’re not going in.”
Milwaukee got on the board first when Joakim Kemell struck late in the opening period. Despite outshooting the Admirals 9-5, the Wolves trailed 1-0 heading into the first intermission.
O’Reilly’s power-play goal midway through the second gave the Admirals a two-goal advantage.
Later in the second, Suzuki notched the Wolves’ first goal of the season while on the power play. The forward pounced on a puck that ricocheted off the end boards and buried a one-timer from the left circle past Milwaukee goaltender Matthew Murray to the glove side. Aleksi Heimosalmi, who fired the puck deep into the Milwaukee zone, and Ty Smith earned assists on the goal that pulled the Wolves to within 2-1 of the Admirals.
“Heimosalmi knows the boards are lively,” Suzuki said. “We talked about it at the morning skate and he put it into a perfect spot and it shot out right to me. I looked for a hole and made a quick decision to shoot it and lucky enough it went in.”
The Admirals extended their lead to 3-1 early in the third on a goal by Kieffer Bellows off a breakaway and Reid Schaefer’s empty-net goal was the final score of the night.
“I’m obviously disappointed we lost but there were a lot of good things in the game,” Wolves head coach Cam Abbott said. “I liked our energy and I thought our guys worked hard and out-chanced Milwaukee. We’ll build on the positives and get better from here.”
Spencer Martin (17 saves) suffered the loss in goal for the Wolves while Murray (31 saves) earned the win for the Admirals.
Chicago fell to 0-1-0-0 on the season while Milwaukee moved to 1-1-0-0.
Next up: The Wolves travel to Hershey to face the Bears on Oct. 19 (6 p.m.).
For information on Wolves ticket plans for the 2024-25 season—everything from single-game tickets to Flex Packs to group outings—visit chicagowolves.com or call 1-800-THE-WOLVES.
