ROCKFORD, Ill.—The Wolves opened a set of three games in three days with a scintillating come-from-behind 5-3 victory over the IceHogs on Friday night at BMO Center.
Austin Wagner scored the game-winner late in the third period, Tyson Jost had two goals and Skyler Brind’Amour and Noel Gunler also tallied to propel the Wolves to their third victory in their last four games. Chicago, which scored four times in the third, improved to 3-0 against Rockford this season.
“It was a little bit chaotic with a lot of goals on both sides,” Jost said. “We’d score and they would score right back and vice-versa. It’s always nice to see when you fight and claw back like that and get a good win.”
Rockford jumped to an early lead when Colton Dach scored 6 minutes, 50 seconds into the contest.
The Wolves wasted little time as they answered :25 later on Jost’s score. The forward redirected a shot from Domenick Fensore while in front to beat IceHogs netminder Drew Commesso to even things at 1-1. Fensore and Charles-Alexis Legault earned assists on the goal. The helper was Fensore’s fifth in the last three games.
“Fensore made an unbelievable play to me backdoor,” Jost said. “It was a great pass—kudos to him. I just had to make the little redirection there. It was really great vision by him.”
The IceHogs reclaimed the lead on Frank Nazar’s goal later in the opening period and after a scoreless second, the teams headed into the third in a one-score contest.
Jost struck again early in the third when he broke in on an odd-man rush with teammate Justin Robidas with the Wolves shorthanded and buried a shot by Commesso to the stick side. The unassisted goal was Jost’s third marker of the season.
“I was absolutely, completely gassed,” Jost said. “It was a penalty kill and the puck squirted out to me. I had to dig deep for that one. The goalie just bit; he thought I was going to go backdoor and I had the short side. It was a good play.”
After Landon Slaggert put the IceHogs out in front 3-2, the Wolves again answered. Brind’Amour banged home a rebound of a Gleb Trikozov stuff attempt for the rookie’s fourth goal of the season.
Wagner tallied late in the third off a breakaway to give the Wolves the lead. The forward raced in from his own blue line and wired a shot past Commesso to the glove side. Riley Stillman assisted on Wagner’s first goal of the season.
Gunler’s empty-net score—his fifth goal of the season and assisted by Juha Jaaska—was the final margin.
Dustin Tokarski (23 saves) earned the win in goal for the Wolves while Commesso (32 saves) took the loss for the IceHogs.
“It’s a good win but we have two more ahead of us so we have to regroup and get ready,” Jost said.
Chicago moved to 6-8-1-0 on the season while Rockford fell to 6-9-1-0.
Next up: The Wolves host the Grand Rapids Griffins on Saturday night (7 p.m.) at Allstate Arena.
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.
