Wolves 7, Flames 1; Wolves 7th season win

The Chicago Wolves remain one of just two teams in the American Hockey League undefeated in regulation play as they burned the Quad City Flames 7-1 in a game, Friday night in Moline, Ill. Jesse Schultz scored a hat trick, Jason Krog scored three assists and Joey Crabb and Steve Martins scored two assists each in the win.

The game marked the return to the Quad Cities of Coach John Anderson. In his final season with the Quad City Mallards, Anderson took the team to its first of three Colonial Cup wins. He has coached the Wolves since then, and he has taken them to two Turner Cup wins and a Calder Cup win in the International Hockey League and the AHL respectively.

The Mallards organization became the current Quad Cities Flames this season when the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights decamped for Moline’s iWireless Center at the end of the 2007 season.

The Wolves went up 1-0 in the first minute as Jordan LaVallee and Martins assisted Schultz with the first goal. A second power play goal by LaVallee occurred just three minutes later, assisted by Krog and Brian Fahey. Then the Wolves potted a second power play goal by Nathan Oystrick, the d-man’s first of the year, assisted by Krog and Crabb, less than three minutes later. At the end of twenty minutes, the Wolves were up 3-0.

The first period saw four of the five minor penalties against the Flames. The Flames gave the Wolves a total of four power play opportunities and the Wolves took advantage of two of them. The Wolves are good for 20.6 percent of their power play opportunities, fourth in the league, and 86.7 percent of their penalty kills, eighth in the league.

The Flames, 27th in the league in penalty kills, became a more disciplined team in the second frame, going through the rest of the game with just one penalty. The Wolves added to the score with a goal by Andre Deveaux, assisted by Kevin Doell and Boris Valabik before the Flames answered with their only goal of the night, Cam Cunning’s power play goal at 16.12, assisted by Derek Couture and Tim Ramholt.

Entering the final period, the Wolves led the Flames 4-1. LaVallee, assisted by Krog and Crabb scored at 10.31. Then Schultz potted his second of the night at 17.44, assisted by Martins and Brian Sipotz and then scored his hat trick unassisted at 17.56.

Despite his hat trick, Schultz was not named one of the three stars of the game. Although he was named one of the three stars of the night on the AHL website. Fred Brathwaite picked up his fifth win of the year and the third consecutive one-goal win of the season. He stopped a season high 37 shots on goal. Kevin Lalande received the loss, stopping 23 shots.

The Wolves continue their circus road trip with another game against the Quad Cities Flames in the iWireless Center of Moline Wednesday, November 7 at 7:00 P.M.

Chicago 3 1 3 -- 7
Quad City 0 1 0 -- 1

First Period---1, Chicago, Schultz 4 (LaVallee, Martins), 0:54; 2, Chicago, LaVallee 4 (Krog, Fahey), 3:55 pp; 3, Chicago, Oystrick 1 (Krog, Crabb), 6:43 pp; Penalties---Prust, Quad City (roughing), 2:31; Germyn,
Quad City (hooking), 6:29; Deveaux, Chicago (interference), 12:08; Germyn, Quad City (holding), 18:06; Pelech, Quad City (roughing), 19:58.

Second Period---4, Chicago, Deveaux 2 (Doell, Valabik), 10:32; 5, Quad City, Cunning (Couture, Ramholt), 16:12 pp. Penalties---Fahey, Chicago (tripping), 14:25.

Third Period---6, Chicago, LaVallee 5 (Krog, Crabb), 10:31; 7, Chicago, Schultz 5 (Martins, Sipotz), 17:44; 8, Chicago, Schultz 6 (unassisted), 17:56. Penalties---Sipotz, Chicago (high-sticking), 0:17; Anderson, Chicago (high-sticking), 2:18; Doell, Chicago (slashing), 10:35; Deveaux, Chicago (roughing), 17:02; Chucko, Quad City (roughing), 17:02.
Shots on goal---Chicago: 12-10-8--30. Quad City: 6-18-14--38.
Power plays---Chicago: 2-4. Quad City: 1-5.
Goalies--Chicago, Brathwaite (37-38). Quad City,
Lalande (23-30).
A---3,203.
Referee---Jeff Smith. Linesmen---Craig Kneale
and Bryan Pancich.

Wolves notes-- Fred Brathwaite is ranked fifth by the AHL among goalies. Jesse Schultz is ranked fifth in goals. The team's ranking in the standing is second place in the Western Division with a 93.8 percent win ratio, trailing the San Antonio Rampage who have a 66.7 percent win ratio. Placement in the AHL is determined by game points, and the Rampage have played 12 games this season, compared to just eight for the Wolves. Only two other teams have played as few games as the Wolves: the Hershey Bears and the Worcester Sharks. The other team with a perfect regulation season record is the Toronto Marlies. [This sentence originally said regular. Whoops!]

[Late edit: WTF, Ondrej Pavelec gets his first NHL start, stopping 30 shots on goal in Tampa Bay, receives the win, but isn't noted as a star of the game? These things, the stars of the game, are next to useless.]