ROSEMONT, Ill.—The Wolves wrapped a set of three games in three days with a 6-3 loss to the Rockford IceHogs on Sunday at Allstate Arena.
Bradly Nadeau had a goal and an assist and Gleb Trikozov and Juha Jaaska also scored but the Wolves couldn’t overcome a hat trick by the IceHogs’ Gerry Mayhew and settled for four of a possible six points over the weekend.
“There are a lot of positives from what we’ve seen this week,” Nadeau said after the game. “We wanted all six points but it won’t always go your way. We fought hard and it was a pretty good weekend for us.”
The loss marked Rockford’s first win over Chicago in four showdowns this season.
“Both teams worked hard,” Nadeau said. “We had a lot of chances on the power play (0-for-6) and five-on-five but we just couldn’t put the puck in the net. They had two more bounces than us and then an empty netter.”
The IceHogs jumped to an early lead when Samuel Savoie found the back of the net 1 minute, 30 seconds into the opening period.
Midway through the first, the Wolves evened the score at 1-1 on Nadeau’s goal. The rookie forward took a pass from Charles-Alexis Legault and wired a one-timer from the edge of the left circle that beat IceHogs goaltender Drew Commesso. Legault and Ryan Suzuki earned assists on Nadeau’s fifth goal of the season.
“Me and Suzuki were going up the ice on a two-on-one and he got pinched off the puck and it started bouncing and Charles grabbed it,” Nadeau said. “It looked like he was going to wheel to the net and he hit me in the slot. I wanted it there.”
Trikozov’s second goal of the season gave the Wolves the lead late in the first. The rookie forward camped in front of Commesso and redirected a pass by Ty Smith from the left circle into the net. Smith and Austin Wagner recorded assists on the play.
In the second, the IceHogs seized the lead on goals by Mayhew, Kevin Korchinski and Artyom Levshunov and led 4-2 after two periods.
The Wolves didn’t quit and climbed to within a goal on Jaaska’s score just 1:17 into the third. Suzuki found Jaaska in the slot and the rookie snapped a shot past Commesso to the stick side.
Rockford then put the game away on two more goals by Mayhew for the final margin.
Ruslan Khazheyev (23 saves) took the loss in goal for the Wolves while Commesso (22 saves) picked up the win for the IceHogs.
Chicago fell to 7-9-1-0 on the season while Rockford moved to 7-9-2-0.
