Wolves win West Div game 7; 4-1 victory, on to Marlies

The Chicago Wolves defeated the Rockford IceHogs in game seven of the Western Division Finals of the Calder Cup Tournament 4-1, Tuesday at the Allstate Arena. The Wolves are scheduled to meet the North Division top seed and champion, the Toronto Marlies, Friday.

On-Ice play was lightly officiated, with only five total penalties given in the game. The IceHogs outshot the Wolves throughout the game. It appeared as though the Hogs were playing desperate hockey, with lots of shots on goal, whenever they had the opportunity. The Wolves, on the other hand, were using cross-ice passing, even when they had shots, to force Chicago Blackhawk goalie prospect Corey Crawford to move side to side.

Two of the Wolves goals were on the power play. Joe Motzko had three shots on Crawford in the first period and two assists in the game. The official game sheet only credits Motzko with one shot on goal. The potential shutout was broken by Kris Versteeg in the mid-third period. Crawford was pulled with about three minutes remaining. However, after Colin Stuart scored an empty net goal with about 90 seconds remaining, he returned to the net for the remainder of the game.

Wolves close to elimination; Hogs win 5-1

The Rockford IceHogs put the Chicago Wolves back to the wall with a big win at the Allstate Arena Friday. The 5-1 win was the first by the IceHogs at the Allstate and puts the team one win away from winning the Western Division championship.

Ondrej Pavelec, while brilliant, was beaten in the second period by a stolen puck that was poked past him in the corner and another turnover on the left circle that was passed to an unprotected right side.

Corey Crawford, meanwhile, had an outstanding night, stopping 40 of 41 shots on goal. In an attempt to beat the Chicago Blackhawks prospect, Wolves coach John Anderson played with the lines in the Friday night game, moving Brett Sterling to play with Steve Martins and Brian Little to play with Jason Krog and Darren Haydar. However, when that didn’t work, the original lines returned in the third period.

But nothing seemed to be able to penetrate Crawford until late in the second period when Krog finally hammered one home. Martin St. Pierre scored two points and Troy Brouwer two goals in the win. The Wolves must win each of the two remaining games to move on. The two teams play again Sunday afternoon in the Rockford MetroCentre.

Weaknesses in playoff goalies: topside

Look for more work on making Ondrej Pavelec going side-to-side in coming Rockford IceHogs games. In an interview in the Rockford Register Star Martin St. Pierre said the IceHogs had seen a weakness in Pavelec’s side-to-side movement. He also said Pavelec tends to do down quickly so that the Hogs will be shooting more upstairs in coming games.

A Wolves source said the Wolves had seen four of their goals in the first two games were topside and he predicted more shots by the team on Corey Crawford above the pads.