Another in a series looking back at the Wolves’ five league championships.
By Chris Kuc and Danny Karmin
Unlike the Wolves’ first two championships when they rolled through the regular season to establish they were a force with which to be reckoned, the 2002 title winners finished fourth in the West Division with a mediocre record of 37-31-7-5.
“That was the first year we were put together with the Atlanta Thrashers affiliation,” legendary Wolves coach John Anderson said. “Half of it was Atlanta’s players and half was our guys and it was on me to be able to bring the team together. It was a challenge at first.”
Chicago stumbled into the postseason thanks to a four-game losing skid and approached the playoffs with a roster in flux.
“Right near the end of the year, Atlanta called up a bunch of guys so we were missing five or six of our best players,” Anderson said. “We had to navigate through the first couple of rounds through different changes.”
The Wolves, who had 11 players with double-digit goal totals during the regular season, did have their two biggest point producers still around in the playoffs in Rob Brown (29 goals, 54 assists) and Steve Maltais (31, 32).
Chicago’s run to the organization’s first Calder Cup created some memorable moments, including during the first-round series that nearly ended the Wolves’ bid in the early stages.
After dropping Game 1 of the best-of-three series to the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, the teams were skating in overtime in Game 2 when Wolves goaltender Frederic Cassivi made a series-altering save.
“One of their guys had an open net and ‘Freddie’ laid his stick down to stop it and we ended up winning the game in overtime,” said Wendell Young, then Executive Director of Team Relations and current Vice Chairman/Governor of the Wolves. “The Wolves would have been put out of the playoffs had that puck gone in.”
Chicago went on to win in double-overtime and took Game 3 in another close affair to advance to face the Grand Rapids Griffins in the Western Conference quarterfinals.
Things didn’t get any easier as the Wolves dispatched the No. 2-seeded Griffins 3-2 to set up a date with the Syracuse Crunch in the semifinals. That series also went the distance and the Wolves took out the top-seeded Crunch 4-3.
In the conference finals, the rolling Wolves bulldozed their way past the Houston Aeros in five games to set up a Calder Cup Final showdown with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
That was when fate again stepped in to provide a pivotal moment.
Trailing 4-3 late in the third period of Game 1 at the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Conn., Anderson pulled goaltender Pasi Nurminen in favor of an extra attacker and Wolves defenseman Bob Nardella fired a long slap shot that found the back of the net to tie it with three seconds on the clock.
In overtime, things got wacky, as explained by Anderson.
“We had a blackout in overtime as the lights in the arena went out,” Anderson said. “We had to wait like 20 minutes and we all had to go off the ice. Eventually, they got it going again and overtime resumed. Then Andreas Karlsson, Maltais and Brown brought the puck up on a three-on-two and it was very slow. They were exhausted but they made a couple of great passes and Karlsson buried it. It was awesome and really just a relief to get through that game. It’s something I’ll always remember.”
A loss in Game 2 a night later evened the series but the Wolves took advantage of the series shifting to Allstate Arena and swept the next three contests.
In the clincher, Maltais had a hat trick and Yuri Butsayev scored in double-overtime for a 4-3 Wolves victory and set off a raucous celebration among the 15,132 fans in attendance.
When the dust had settled, the Wolves had become the first team in AHL history to defeat three division winners en route to a championship, play 25 postseason games—winning 17 of them—and come out victorious in 12 home games, including their last nine.
The dynamic duo of Maltais and Brown came up largest in the playoffs, especially Brown who had seven goals and 26 assists in 25 games. That performance followed a conversation between Brown and Young.
“I had a talk with Rob about how he had all these scoring records and was a prolific scorer but he never really won a big championship so why not focus on that?” Young recalled. “And he did.”
Brown responded with an epic performance to the tune of those 26 helpers that tied an American Hockey League playoff record.
Nurminen posted a 15-5 record with a 1.94 goals-against average and two shutouts in the postseason to capture the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs.
“That team just fought through stuff,” said Maltais, who had a postseason-best 12 goals. “We were down 2-0 against Syracuse and came back and won in seven and then took care of (Houston and) Bridgeport pretty well.
“Winning it at home was pretty cool,” Maltais continued. “We had some guys who had won before and they kind of knew how it felt, but there are always some guys and it’s their first and you could see the true passion in their eyes.”
The 2002 CALDER Cup champions
Players: Steve Maltais, Rob Brown, Kamil Piros, Jarrod Skalde, J.P. Vigier, Dan Snyder, Ben Simon, Bryan Adams, Brad Tapper, Dan Plante, Derek MacKenzie, Andreas Karlsson, Brett Clark, Brian Pothier, Dallas Eakins, Kurtis Foster, Jeff Dessner, David Harlock, Mike Weaver, Darcy Hordichuk, Zdenek Blatny, Garnet Exelby, Guy Larose, Simon Gamache, Luke Sellars, Patrik Stefan, Francis Lessard, Yuri Butsayev, Kirill Safronov, Joe DiPenta, Petr Buzek, David Kaczowka, Libor Ustrnul, Roger Trudeau, Barry Dreger, Mike Sgroi, Jay Langager, Norm Maracle, Pasi Nurminen, Scott Fankouser, Fredric Cassivi.
Head Coach: John Anderson
Coming soon: Part Four, the 2008 Calder Cup. For Part Two, go here.
