ROSEMONT, Ill.—The Wolves kicked off the new year in style with a 3-2 victory over the Iowa Wild on Thursday night at Allstate Arena.
Austin Wagner and Aleksi Heimosalmi each had a goal and an assist and Ethan Keppen also scored to lift the Wolves to their second win in a row and eighth triumph in their last nine games.
“Once we get our game in order we’re very effective,” Wagner said. “We know the plan and we know what’s working. It was just a good all-around team game.”
The Wild struck first when Caedan Bankier found the back of the net early in the opening period.
The Wolves’ offense kicked into gear early in the second period with Wagner starting things off. With the Wolves on the power play, Heimosalmi raced into the Iowa zone and flung a pass to a streaking Wagner who then redirected the puck past Wild netminder Samuel Hlavaj to the stick side. Heimosalmi and Joakim Ryan earned assists on Wagner’s fourth goal of the season.
“We’ve been working pretty hard on that,” Wagner said. “ ‘Heimo’ made a great play backside and made it pretty easy on me to tap it in.
“It was definitely a good one that we needed to get the team going,” the forward continued. “It kind of jump-started us and we started rolling after that. Guys started playing really well and the next thing you know we put another one in and then another one.”
Iowa regained the lead 1 minute, 52 seconds later on Michael Milne’s score but the Wolves again answered when Keppen notched his first goal of the season 1:26 after that. Sahil Panwar jumped on a loose puck deep in the Wild zone and fed Keppen in front for a one-timer that found its way through Hlavaj to even the game at 2-2 after two periods.
Playing in his first game since missing four with an injury, Heimosalmi staked the Wolves to a 3-2 advantage early in the third. The defenseman took a feed from Wagner and unleashed a wicked wrist shot from the left dot that sailed by Hlavaj to the glove side. Wagner and Justin Robidas recorded assists on Heimosalmi’s third goal of the season.
Spencer Martin (26 saves) earned the win in goal for the Wolves while Hlavaj (21 saves) took the loss for the Wild.
Chicago improved to 16-10-2-0 on the season while Iowa dropped to 11-18-1-0.
“We should be proud of ourselves but we can’t get complacent,” Wagner said of the Wolves’ recent strong play. “We just have to keep rolling by keeping it simple. We can’t change a thing and we need to just keep doing our jobs.”
Next up: The Wolves host the Rockford IceHogs 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.
