ROSEMONT, Ill.—While the Wolves were defeating the Milwaukee Admirals 3-0 on Saturday night at Allstate Arena, Chicago learned its initial opponent for the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs.
The Wolves, who have been locked into second place in the Central Division, will face the Texas Stars in the Division Semifinals. The Stars decided their fate Saturday night when they topped the Rockford IceHogs 5-1 at home. That kept Texas in third place to set up a best-of-five showdown with the Wolves, who will begin their quest for a sixth league championship.
The Wolves finished 1-6-0-1 against the Stars during the regular season with Texas holding a 32-22 advantage in goals.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Evan Vierling, who scored a goal during the Wolves’ win over the Admirals. “Obviously, our record against them in the regular season is not what we wanted but it’s a completely new season now. We’re built for a good playoff run here.”
Felix Unger Sorum led the Wolves in scoring during the eight regular-season meetings with 12 points off two goals and 10 assists. Noel Gunler paced the Wolves with four goals.
Matthew Seminoff (four goals, six assists) and Harrison Scott (five goals) were the top producers for the Stars against the Wolves.
Central Division Semifinals Schedule
Game 1: Tuesday, April 28, 7 p.m., HEB Center
Game 2: Thursday, April 30, 7 p.m., HEB Center
Game 3: Saturday, May 2, 7 p.m., Allstate Arena
Game 4: Sunday, May 3, 3 p.m., Allstate Arena (if necessary)
Game 5: Tuesday, May 5, 7 p.m., Allstate Arena (if necessary)
Tickets for the Wolves’ Central Division Semifinals series against the Texas Stars are now on sale here.
“We’re excited to play Texas,” Wolves interim coach Spiros Anastas said. “It’s a team that we think we’ve matched up well against. I know we haven’t gotten the results but we feel like we’ve outplayed them in a lot of games, we’ve had the lead in a lot of games and we’ve yet to really play them with our full lineup so we think it’s a really good opponent for us.”
During the Wolves’ triumph over the Admirals on Saturday night in the penultimate game of the 2025-26 American Hockey League regular season, Viktor Neuchev, Blake Biondi and Evan Vierling scored while Amir Miftakhov made 20 saves to record his second shutout of the season.
“We wanted to stick to our game plan and we did,” Vierling said. “It was a great team effort.”
Chicago moved to 35-21-8-7 on the season while Milwaukee fell to 32-32-4-3.
Up next: The Wolves host the Milwaukee Admirals in the regular-season finale Sunday at Allstate Arena (3 p.m.).
For information on Wolves tickets—including for the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs—visit chicagowolves.com or call 1-800-THE-WOLVES.
