ROSEMONT, Ill.—The Wolves rallied to extend their winning streak to three games with a 4-3 victory over the Manitoba Moose on Thursday night at Allstate Arena.
Ryan Suzuki, Ronan Seeley, Domenick Fensore and Austin Wagner scored for the Wolves, who moved to within three points of the idle Grand Rapids Griffins for third place in the Central Division with two games in hand.
“Our message lately is that this time of year is playoff hockey,” Fensore said. “We didn’t have the great start we wanted but we showed a lot of resiliency. We have a lot of good players in the room so it was fun to see it.”
The Moose came out firing and took a two-goal lead when Ashton Sautner and Fabian Wagner scored 53 seconds apart in the early moments of the opening period.
The Wolves struck back midway through the first on Suzuki’s seventh goal of the season. The veteran forward banged home a rebound of his own shot against Moose netminder Domenic DiVincentiis from in close to make it 2-1. Bradly Nadeau and Aleksi Heimosalmi earned assists.
Seeley’s goal late in the first knotted the score at 2-2. The defenseman pounced on a loose puck in the slot and batted in a backhander. Josiah Slavin recorded an assist on Seeley’s third goal of the season.
The Wolves took over in the second on goals by Fensore and Wagner.
First, Fensore tallied while Chicago was killing a penalty. The defenseman picked up the puck in his own zone, sped through the neutral zone, burst into Moose territory and ripped a shot from just inside the right circle that beat DiVincentiis to the stick side. Fensore’s team-leading third shorthanded goal was his seventh of the season overall.
“The puck kind of squirted out, I saw some open ice and I took advantage of it,” Fensore said. “I made a quick move inside and flung it on net. I didn’t know it went in at first and then I saw the puck in the back of the net and everyone started cheering.”
Wagner used his speed to give the Wolves a 4-2 advantage after two periods. The forward turned on the jets and out-skated two Moose defenders to move in alone on DiVincentiis and ripped a shot past the netminder’s stick. The unassisted marker was Wagner’s ninth of the season.
Fabian Wagner’s second goal of the game pulled Manitoba to within 4-3 early in the third.
Spencer Martin started the game in goal for the Wolves and made nine saves before departing with an injury in the second period. Dustin Tokarski went the rest of the way for the Wolves, stopping six shots. DiVincentiis (27 saves) took the loss for the Moose.
Chicago moved to 30-23-3-0 on the season while Manitoba dropped to 20-32-1-3.
Up next: The Wolves host the Hershey Bears 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.
