ROSEMONT, III. — The Wolves played host to Coachella Valley for the first time in franchise history and skated to a 3-2 loss to the Firebirds in overtime Saturday night at Allstate Arena.
Justin Robidas and Skyler Brind’Amour scored but in the end the Firebirds prevailed on Jagger Firkus’ overtime goal to snap the Wolves’ two-game winning streak. Chicago earned a point in the Central Division standings and its Magic Number for clinching a berth in the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs dropped to one point.
“It’s a tough loss for sure,” Robidas said. “I think we probably deserved a better outcome but stuff like that happens. It’s a long season. We still managed to get a point so that’s a positive.”
The Wolves struck first when Robidas cashed in on the power play early in the first. The rookie forward took a backhand pass from Juha Jaaska from behind the Firebirds net, deked Coachella Valley goaltender Nikke Kokko to the ice and buried a forehand shot into the back of the net from in close. Jaaska and Bradly Nadeau earned assists on Robidas’ 16th goal of the season.
“We knew they were going to pressure and try and come high on us so we brought it down to Juha and he made a great play,” Robidas said. “Two guys went on him and he saw me in the middle. I’ve been shooting when I’ve been having little breakaways so I decided to do a little move and fortunately it went in.”
Late in the first period, Coachella Valley knotted the score at 1-1 on a goal by Ryan Winterton.
Another power-play goal put the Wolves in front early in the second. This time, Brind’Amour shoveled a rebound of a Nikita Pavlychev shot past Kokko to make it 2-1. On Brind’Amour’s 15th goal of the season, Pavlychev and Domenick Fensore were awarded assists.
Again, the Firebirds struck when Winterton tallied his second of the game a short time later.
After neither team tallied in the third, Firkus ended it in overtime for the Firebirds and the Wolves need to wait another day to clinch a berth in the playoffs.
“It’s that time of year when you know you can clinch the playoffs and the quicker it’s done the quicker we can just focus on developing our game and getting ready for that playoff push,” Robidas said.
Spencer Martin (30 saves) took the loss in goal for the Wolves while Kokko (26 saves) picked up the win for the Firebirds.
Chicago fell to 32-27-4-0 on the season while Coachella Valley moved to 34-22-2-5.
Up next: The Wolves host the Coachella Valley Firebirds on Sunday (3 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.
