ROSEMONT, Ill.—The Wolves fell to the Colorado Eagles 7-3 in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals of the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs on Friday night at Allstate Arena.
Skyler Brind’Amour, Justin Robidas and Bradly Nadeau scored for the Wolves but the Eagles rallied to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series with Game 6 scheduled for Sunday night at Colorado.
“It was one of those games where the bounces kept going against us and our guys reacted negatively to them,” Wolves coach Spiros Anastas said. “That sums it all up, really. We just lost our juice because we came out really strong.”
The Wolves raced to a 2-0 advantage before the midway point of the opening period.
Brind’Amour kicked things off with his first goal of the postseason just 4 minutes, 3 seconds into the contest when the forward cruised into the slot, took a feed from Evan Vierling and snapped a one-timer that beat Colorado netminder Trent Miner to the stick side. Vierling and Cal Foote earned assists.
The Wolves kept coming and extended the lead while on the power play. Robidas received a pass from Juuso Valimaki near the left post and put a shot on goal that Miner stopped. Robidas stuck with it and stuffed the rebound into the back of the net for a two-goal Chicago advantage. Valimaki and Noah Philp recorded assists on Robidas’ team-leading sixth goal of the playoffs.
Colorado stormed back to even things up at 2-2 heading into the first intermission on a pair of goals by Tristen Nielsen.
Nadeau put the Wolves out in front at the 3:00 mark of the second when the forward swooped in and batted a cross-ice pass from Viktor Neuchev past Miner to the stick side. On Nadeau’s fourth goal of the postseason, Neuchev and Dominik Badinka had assists.
The Eagles responded by reeling off consecutive tallies by Matt DiMarsico, Taylor Makar and Chase Bradley to forge ahead 5-3 after two periods.
Alex Gagne’s goal early in the third put the game away for Colorado and Jason Polin capped the scoring for the Eagles with an empty-netter.
Cayden Primeau (20 saves) suffered the loss in goal for the Wolves while Miner (26 saves) picked up the win for the Eagles.
The Wolves now hit the road for the conclusion of the series beginning with Game 6 on Sunday night.
“I’m not worried,” Anastas said. “I’d pick this team against any team in the league in any single game and that’s the way you have to look at it. It’s a single game on Sunday and we’ll worry about Monday if we get there.”
Next up: The Wolves travel to Colorado to face the Eagles in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals on Sunday night (7:05 p.m.).
For information on Wolves tickets for the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs, visit chicagowolves.com or call 1-800-THE-WOLVES.
