ROSEMONT, Ill.—The Wolves wrapped up a four-game homestand by having their three-game winning streak snapped by the Rockford IceHogs 5-3 on Sunday at Allstate Arena.
Noel Gunler had a goal and two assists while Nikita Pavlychev and Justin Robidas each scored and added an assist but the Wolves fell short when Joey Anderson scored the winner—he had four goals and an assist in the game—late in the third period for Rockford. It marked just the second loss in the last 11 games for the Wolves.
“We want to win every game—that’s the standard we’ve built the last couple of months,” Gunler said after the game. “We have good confidence in the group and we know that (Sunday) we didn’t play up to our standard. It was still a close game, which shows that we’re always a team to count on even though we don’t always have the best game.”
The Wolves jumped to an early lead when Robidas tallied 6 minutes, 45 seconds after the opening puck drop. The forward took a nifty pass from Pavlychev and fired a wrist shot from between the circles that beat Rockford goaltender Mitchell Weeks to the glove side. Pavlychev and Gunler earned assists on Robidas’ ninth goal of the season.
Anderson netted the next two goals to give Rockford a 2-1 lead headed into the first intermission.
Midway through the second, the Wolves knotted it at 2-2 on Gunler’s score. The forward wired a wrist shot from the left dot that sailed by Weeks for Gunler’s ninth goal of the season. Robidas and Aleksi Heimosalmi had assists.
“I came in from a shift and I got the puck and I had a lot of space to walk in and shoot it so it was nice to get a good shot on that one,” Gunler said.
Rockford again seized the lead in the waning moments of the second on a goal by Cole Guttman.
Pavlychev’s first goal of the season tied it at 3-3. On an aggressive forecheck, Gunler stole the puck from behind the Rockford goal and chipped it to Pavlychev, who calmly tucked it past Weeks and into the net.
Anderson notched his third goal of the game with the IceHogs on the power play to give Rockford the lead and the forward capped the scoring with an empty-netter.
“It wasn’t perfect but we were still in the game at the end,” Gunler said. “They scored on their power play at the end and we didn’t score on ours and that was the difference.”
Ruslan Khazheyev (25 saves) took the loss in goal for the Wolves while Weeks (23 saves) picked up the win for the IceHogs.
Chicago dropped to 17-11-2-0 on the season while Rockford improved to 14-14-3-1.
Next up: The Wolves travel to Coachella Valley to face the Firebirds on Saturday night (8 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.
