Wolves 2, Crunch 1

The Chicago Wolves defeated the Syracuse Crunch 2-1 in a game at the Allstate Arena early Sunday evening. Joey Crabb and Steve Martins each scored goals in the contest. Junior Lessard led an offensive output of four shots on goal. Robert Gherson, in net, stopped 19 shots on goal for the win.

Spencer Machacek, who is working with the Wolves on conditioning, had some ice time and was credited with a shot on goal.

The Wolves start a road trip this week. They do not return to the Allstate Arena till November 22.

IceHogs drop two over weekend

The Rockford IceHogs dropped two home games over the weekend. The Chicago Blackhawk AAA affiliate is now tied with the Chicago Wolves for first place in the Western Division.

On Friday night, the IceHogs lost 2-1 against the Manitoba Moose. Power play goals by both teams kept the score even till Guillame Desbiens scored the winning goal in the second period. Pascal Pelletier scored a power play goal. He led the offence with five shots on goal. Corey Crawford received the loss, stopping 25 shots on goal. Cory Schneider received the win for the Moose, stopping 19 shots on goal.

Saturday’s loss 3-2 loss to the Syracuse Crunch featured Antti Niemi in net for the IceHogs. He stopped 24 shots on goal. Crunch goalie Steve Mason stopped 22 shots on goal. Mike Blunden and Pelletier each had an offensive of three shots on goal, but both players were pointless in the contest.

The IceHogs continue to be a physical team. They gave up 16 advantages to opposing teams this weekend. Looking at the stats for the league, there isn’t an IceHog listed in the top 20 players for penalty minutes. But watching these guys play, they are physical, finishing their checks and refusing to back down. The spirit of the old IceHogs from the United Hockey League just seems to have somehow lived on, but with greater skill.

As that skill level moves up to the Blackhawk, we should see a team that is more physically aggressive on the ice. That should be fun.

While the American Hockey League serves as a breeding ground for blue liners, fans also want to see some offence. What strikes me, looking at the weekend, is how the offence is spread around. In other words, the talent on the bench is balanced. Stars make it through this level to play at the next level. I want to see more from players like Jack Skille. They need to step it up.

Physical Crunch threaten upset win in North Div.

Zenon Konopka led the Syracuse Crunch to a key 5-4 OT come-from-behind win over the Toronto Marlies Wednesday. Konopka scored a goal and three assists in the game. His over time pass to Joakim Lindstrom was responsible for the game-winning goal. The Crunch now threatens to send the Marlies home for the year with a win in any game in the American Hockey league North Division Finals series.

Konopka is ranked 11th among league scorers in the post-season. Ranked fourth among players with penalty minutes, the scorer has two Crunch line-up ahead of him among players with penalty minutes: Derek Dorsett, who was suspended for a widely reported instigator incident in a game earlier this week, and Tom Sestito.

Talking Trash

The blog has had some of its best times at the MetroCentre and following the Rockford IceHogs. The only thing better than a series championship series with the Hogs versus the Wolves would be a conference championship. And that could have happened this year.

For the Wolves, this is really a blessing. No disrespect to the players, but the Wolves were cruising from about March 1st to the end of the season. A series against the Milwaukee Admirals and a series against the Rockford IceHogs is just what this team needs to get ready for a final showdown for the Calder Cup.

Not that I wouldn’t love to see the IceHogs go on to the Calder too.

There are people out there, and I’m thinking of you Bob Howard, who don’t seem to be giving the West Division a chance in the Calder Cup race. Syracuse, Portland and Providence is the mantra. No one said it was going to be easy to win the Calder. But for every great goalie and team in the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Division, there has been one in the West.

I truly thought the promising career of Pekka Rinne was finished when he was mugged while home over the summer in Oulu, Finland. He looked so shaky on his return last season. Nashville seemed to give up on him, relegating him to the AHL for the rest of his career.

I don’t think that is true any longer. I’ve seen the Nashville goalies up close, and Rinne should be able to take their spot next season, if there is fairness in the heavens. Though John Anderson will tell you that there is no fairness, especially in the heaven dominated by hockey.

Rinne kept the MAds in the series against Chicago far longer than the rest of the team deserved. His play was top form.

Now, in round two, the Wolves face Corey Crawford. As I mentioned in the blog before, I was blessed to have tickets the night Corey played at the United Center against the Anaheim Ducks. He shut them down. In the three games so far, no one can doubt his ability to stop pucks.

This is a tougher series than against the MAds too, because the IceHogs are simply a better team then the MAds. They have been all season. Either the Hogs or the Wolves should be able to handle the Crunch or the Marlies and move on to the finals.

Will the next series be easy for either team? Of course not. Even 4-1 series wins, at this level, are hard-played white knuckle contests. The small-ice Hogs are a physical team and would match up well against the Crunch, while pitting Toronto against Chicago would be an exciting big city battle of two places with original six teams that have disappointed their fans recently.

Zenon Konopka’s reputation is preceding him to the Midwest. We could start the trash talk now, but let’s see if the Crunch has more staying power than Al, the ice monkey, and his political run for mayor. Let’s see them defeat the Marlies first.

By the way, Al is the best thing about Syracuse. It is one of the few places in the AHL I’ve visited where none of the home fans approached us, where I felt the stadium deserved a bull dozer and the city to be forcibly repatriated to either the Iroquois or, if they wouldn’t take them, Great Britain.

Cuneyworth wins 300th-- not quite

There are some stories that you prepare ahead of time. The story of Randy Cunneyworth earning his 300th win behind the bench is one such story. The last victory by the Rochester Americans was a 2-1 victory over the Albany River Rats. Since then the Amerks have been shut out in two games. The next attempt to win that elusive 300th game comes on Saturday night against the Syracuse Crunch. Maybe then I can finally run the story. Good luck Randy.

Jaffray hat trick, Moose 4, Bears 2

Jason Jaffray scored a hat trick in a 4-2 victory of the Manitoba Moose over the Hershey Bears at the MTS Centre Thursday. The victory lifted the Moose to 68 points, one more than the Calder Cup defenders Hamilton Bulldogs, who have two games in hand over the Moose. Also, the win puts the Moose seven points up on the fourth place North Division Syracuse Crunch. The Crunch did not play Thursday. They are trying to hold onto the fourth playoff spot in the North Division over four teams in the West Division that can take the spot if they have more points at the end of the season.

Wolves v Rampage; Hogs v MAds

The Houston Aeros, in fourth place in the West Division of the American Hockey League, are in a tight race with four teams fighting for the last two play-off spots, one in the West and one in the North Division.

They were helped by Wednesday’s win by the Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton Penguins over the fourth place North Division team, the Syracuse Crunch. And, they were helped by their own efforts too, a win Wednesday night, 1-0 over the North Division Lake Erie Monsters of Cleveland.

Although I’d earlier forecast that Syracuse was out of the hunt for the post season, due to it being so far behind the four West Division teams fighting for fourth and fifth place, there is another possibility for the team, it could catch the third place Manitoba Moose or even the second place Hamilton Bulldogs. The Bulldogs, the Calder Cup winner last season, have 67 points in 58 games. The Moose have chalked up 66 points in 59 games and the fourth place Crunch have 61 points in 60 games.

So it is tight for the Crunch. They are in a hard spot. But it will be easier to beat two teams than to go on a run that beats four.

The Milwaukee Admirals, in fifth place in the West, beat the Rockford IceHogs 4-3. The IceHogs have been on a ride to nowhere lately, with only four points in ten games. Milwaukee, on the other hand has 13 points in ten games. The MAds are one of four teams in the West Division in a race for the two playoff spots, one in the West and one in the North, that seem up for grabs. The MAds are trailing the San Antonio Rampage in the standings by five points with the SAR having five games in hand.

The MAds have always been a hard-hitting team. But, I think they’ve met their match with the IceHogs, a physical team that is finishing its checks this year. The violence in hockey is usually confined to the ice surface and usually to the game. When it explodes outside of those limits, you have a problem defined outside the code. It would be fair to call it a personal problem.

The Hogs and the MAds had such a fight on Wednesday. Troy Brouwer, Colin Fraser, Kelsey Wilson and Alex Henry received a variety of penalties after the match. The two teams meet again on Saturday, March 8th at the Bradley Center. There should be fireworks.

I’m not a person to scream “fight, fight, fight” at games. But the Hogs need a boost. They need to regain their spirit. And a good scrum might help.

The Rampage hosted the Chicago Wolves for the first time this season. The Wolves, the number two team in the league, treated their hosts poorly, going ahead 5-0 at the end of the second period. But after putting 18 shots on the San Antonio goal in the first period, the Wolves seemed to relax: just 10 shots on goal for the remainder of the game.

San Antonio, on the other hand, put 40 shots on Ondrej Pavelec in the second and third frames. One of the things to look at in a team is the shots on goal. I remember games during the lockout when Kari Lehtonen was in net. The Wolves would typically give up 40, 50 and once I remember 60 shots on goal.

That’s poor defense. Have you ever heard people say it is hard to measure defense? There is a great measure of a team’s defense. I’ll put it this way: 40 shots on goal in two periods is equivalent to 60 shots on goal for 60 minutes. It is poor defense.

Visitors would complain that Kari’s numbers were inflated by off-ice officials in Chicago who favored him having a high save percentage. “They’ll give him a SOG for looking at a puck in the corner,” they said. Another way to look at it is that Lehtonen had a poor defense in front of him.

Forty shots on goal in two periods? Terrible defense. The Wolves are holding on by the grace of Pavelec. The Wolves are a good team and should be using this period leading up to the playoffs, not to rest, but to totally discourage every other team in this league. The defense needs to shut down the opposing offense. It can do it, the penalty kill numbers demonstrate it. Not only the penalty kill numbers, but in the one period the Wolves didn’t phone it in, SAR only had four shots on goal.

There’s another example of defense. Except this time it was clicking. Four shots on goal in 20 minutes of play.

These two teams meet again on Friday. Expect some fireworks. Whether true or not, a person purporting to be a former Wolves player went on a message board after the game to issue a challenge to the Wolves.

Icehogs shut down Mads 2-0

It was a quiet game, until the third period when four players were sent to the showers at the same time. The Rockford IceHogs, with Wade Flaherty in net, and Michael Brodeur backing, shut down the Milwaukee Admirals 2-0 at the Rockford MetroCentre today. Rockford put 22 shots on Pekka Rinne for the win, while the MAds only summed up 17 shots on goal for the game.

Matt Ellison and Nolan Yonkman for Milwaukee and Ryan Stokes and Kris Versteeg for Rockford were given fighting majors with just four and half minutes remaining in the game. Alex Henry was given a double minor in the same altercation.

The Quad City Flames beat up the visiting Grand Rapids Griffins 6-1 at the iWireless Center in Moline and the Houston Aeros shutout the Rochester Americans 4-0 at the War Memorial.

The Griffins are pretty much out of the hunt, now, for the final spot in the North Division, trailing even the last place West Division team for the fourth opening. The North Division fourth place team, the Syracuse Crunch, have 60 points in 59 contests while now three West Division teams are tied at 65 points, one has two games in hand over the Crunch, making it nearly impossible for the Crunch to take the last spot in their division.

The West Division race for the final playoff spot has the Quad City Flames, the Milwaukee Admirals and the Houston Aeros all tied at 65 points, meaning one of them will probably advance to play in the North Division playoffs. Each team has 59 games played, except the Aeros, who have two games in hand. In fourth place of the division is the Peoria Rivermen with 66 pointsd in 58 games. This is the tightest race in the American Hockey League currently.

Milwaukee comes back from three goal deficit to win in OT

The Milwaukee Admirals took the oxygen out of the Wells Fargo Arena Saturday night with a 5-4 OT win over the Iowa Stars. Starting down 4-1 in the third period, the MAds scored three times in a space of seven minutes to force the game into overtime. The final goal came with just 51 seconds remaining on the regulation clock.

Dov Grumet-Morris received the win, stopping 19 shots in his debut as an Admiral. The Admirals are now 5-0-1 in their last six games and hold fifth place. They trail the fourth-place Peoria Rivermen by one point in the West Division. The Rivermen have a game in hand over the MAds. The Houston Aeros and the Quad City Flames both trail the Admirals by two points in the standings. Houston has two games in hand over the Admirals.

The fifth-place team in the West Division would currently receive a playoff spot in the North Division. Currently the North Division Syracuse Crunch have 60 points, where as every team in the West Division, with the exception of the Iowa Stars, has at least 63 points. The fifth place West Division team, the MAds have 5 points and a game in hand over the Syracuse Crunch.

1,000 miles to hockey; Wolves take 3 more games

I’ve had to cancel the first leg of my trip, from Chicago to Moline, IL as the traffic on the expressways leaving the city are too much to make the 7 PM game time. So, let’s set it up as a Wolves victory, 2-1 over the Quad City Flames, the second win by the Wolves over the Flames this season.

In addition to that news is the addition to the team of Brent Sterling. Sterling was sent down from Atlanta apparently due to a lack of production. Rookie of the year while playing with the Wolves in the 2007 season, and American Hockey League scoring champion, the key question is whether he will produce back on the Wolves or merely mess up the lines. This first night, in Moline, Sterling is credited with a single shot on goal and no points or assists.

Windsor, Ontario, November 8, 300 miles from Chicago--- The St. Michael’s Major’s set up a wall in the Windsor Arena as Anthony Grieco, 18, stopped forty shots on goal in a 3-2 overtime win against the home team Windsor Spitfires here.

The Spitfires offensive play was frustrated by an inability to penetrate Grieco, who played for the University of North Dakota last year, but did not receive ice time there. This year, he is putting up a 93.6 percent save percentage.

Syracuse, New York, November 9, 800 miles from Chicago--- I noticed, as I entered the rink in Windsor the number of banners hanging from the ceiling. It is a sign of the quality of the team if it has a lot of banners. The Spitfires had three. Syracuse, as established and well known a hockey team as any in the American league, has just two. And neither is for the Calder Cup.

A banner hangs in the rafters for a 1954 NBA championship.

The crowd is smaller than I expect and not nearly as knowledgeable about hockey as I’d hoped. Several college-aged kids drop down in seats next to me, beer spilling on the floor, and attempt to taunt the Wolves.

The building was described on-line at Wolfkeeper as a bandbox, and the Onondaga County War Memorial does not disappoint there. Somewhat larger than the auditoriums I see at the Chicago Public Schools, I think that it might comfortably fit inside the footprint of the auditorium at Lane Tech High School.

But, within 7:50 of the first period, former Wolves captain Derek Mackenzie has scored a goal, a second goal has been potted and the Wolves are trying to kill their third 5:3 power play, led by Sterling. I’m thinking of whether Sterling will force me to lead with a piece on how former NHL players return to the AHL with a chip on the shoulder.

Behind 2-0, Fred Brathwaite, who has had to deflect too many rebounds in the first eight minutes, and has had to let two in—the scorers never seem to be able to count all the shots on goal correctly—begins to stand firm and with him, the Wolves too.

As the Wolves begin to turn the tide on the Crunch, scoring a goal first through the efforts of Andre Deveaux. Jaimie Koharski demonstrates to the crowd how wrong a referee can be. Brathwaite gets into a battle in front of the net and ends up on his belly, with the puck slipping out and out of his grasp. But Koharski can’t see it because Koharski is on the other side of Brathwaite. And, Koharski doesn’t skate up to take a closer look, whistling the play stopped.

Watching this, as the crowd explodes into “ref you suck,” you have to pause and wonder what would have happened to this game if the Crunch had been able to take another goal in the first period? The puck was just sitting there, steaming. All it needed for the fireworks was a Crunch player who wanted to be a hero.

By the end of the first frame, the Wolves have recovered the two goals and tied the game. The scoring is over for the Crunch as the scoring machine that consists of the various Wolves lines begins to bear on the hapless Crunch goalie, Adam Monro. The singing, the dancing and the spilling beer are all pointless now. The Crunch seemed doomed to fail tonight as Sterling redeems himself with two goals, making up for the two 5:3 situations he helped create. And Alexandre Giroux puts two in also. In fact, it is obvious as the game wears on that Giroux and perhaps Sterling too, is trying desperately to score a hat-trick tonight. And it is with frustration that they see the final penalty of the game against the Wolves by Scott Lehman prematurely ending their efforts.

The final is a 5-2 Wolves victory, with Lindsey Cramer of the Syracuse Post Standard saying the next morning, “Chicago is a deep, fierce, offensive team, a pseudo-NHL team in Wolves clothing. Chicago was cool even in the face of its early hole, pressuring the Crunch into defensive mistakes and make its comeback more a matter of time than talent.”

Hamilton, ON, November 10, 1,000 miles from Chicago— The Copps Coliseum has been the home to some great moments in Brathwaite’s career, a Memorial Cup win in juniors and last year’s 1-0 shutout of the Bulldogs during the Calder Cup semi-finals come immediately to mind.

Brathwaite seems home in the older building, drawing strength from it and a crowd that is appreciative of hockey and his place in its history. In the wings, stands a young goalie, just 24 years old, Gherson looks like he would be more at home playing for the Windsor Spitfires than the Wolves or the Atlanta Thrashers.

Brathwaite is in net again tonight, the second of three games in a row for the Wolves on the road trip. Along with the Toronto Marlies, the Wolves remain undefeated in regulation play in the AHL.

The Bulldogs owned the Wolves throughout last season, earning a point in every matchup with the Chicago team in the regular season and allowing them only one victory in the semi-final.

But, the Bulldogs aren’t the same team now that won the Calder Cup in June. And the Wolves jump to a 2-0 lead in the first frame of the period as Sterling potts his third and fourth goal of the season, which for him is just three AHL games.

The Bulldogs reply with three goals, bringing the Niagara Peninsula team ahead 3-2 at the end of two frames, including a very physical goal that starts as a wrap-around against Brathwaite that is hammered in by Janni Lahti.

The Wolves reply in the third frame with their second and third lines each adding a goal and then holding on as the Bulldogs attempt to bring the game into extra time for the win.

The smog fills the hollows and gathers around the lamp posts as we head back to the border. We do not return to Hamilton again in the regular season. The fans express their frustration at losing. Losing a game against the Wolves. Losing a franchise despite the deposit of an extraordinary number of season tickets for the Predators.

We express our hope to return here again in May. And, the answer to our questions about Sterling seem satisfied. He is here to play.

Tired Wolves thrash last place Crunch 6-2

The Syracuse Crunch were beaten soundly by the Chicago Wolves Sunday afternoon at the Allstate Arena, losing 6-2. Newly acquired Wolves Andy Delmore and Andre Deveaux each notched a goal while Colin Stuart had a short-handed goal.

Delmore, acquired by the Atlanta Thrashers in a trade February 1, from the Tampa Bay Lightning, had his second goal in Wolves colors to start the scoring with just 36 seconds on the clock. He currently leads American Hockey League blue liners with 14 goals. The Wolves continued to pressure the Crunch with ten more shots on goal during the period. The Crunch replied with just five shots of their own, all of which were stopped by Wolves goalie Fred Brathwaite. AHL referee Brian Pochmara called 16 minutes of penalties in the period.

In the second frame Crunch winger Darcy Verot took a pass in the slot from Marc Methot and fired it past Brathwaite, putting the score at 1-1. Chicago replied on one of its several second frame power plays when rookie Jordan LaVallee received a pass from Alex Bourret. Splitting two defenders, he beat Crunch goalie Dan Lacosta to put the Wolves in the lead 2-1.

Deveaux received a penalty at 9.31 leading to a Crunch power play. However, Colin Stuart and Delmore made a break for the Crunch net with Stuart potting a short handed goal for a 3-1 score. Deveaux, Steve Martins and Joey Crabb increased the Wolves lead to 6-1 in the third frame. Mid-way through the period Derek MacKenzie received a five minute major penalty for high sticking. A further two minutes was given as the penalty wound down to Braydon Colburn, leading to roughly six minutes of advantage before the Crunch were able to convert that into a goal.















Chicago was two for nine on the power play, while Syracuse was one for nine. There were a total of 39 minutes of power plays in the game. Thirteen different Wolves players had points in the game. Brathwaite received the win with 26 saves on 28 shots, while Lacosta, who was named player of the week last week, received the loss with 23 saves on 29 shots.

The Crunch continue to stew in the basement of their division, with just 43 points this season, the team is tied for 25th out of 27 teams in points, 25 out of 27 for penalty minutes and 26 out of 27 for goals allowed on the road. Unless a miracle occurs in Syracuse, the Wolves will not meet the Crunch again this season.

The win gives the Wolves an 11 point lead on their nearest rival in points in the West Division, the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights. The Wolves are tied for second place in the league, trailing the Chicago Blackhawk affiliates, the Norfolk Admirals and tied with the Manchester Monarchs. The team starts another road trip this week, playing the Houston Aeros on Saturday and Sunday and the San Antonio Rampage a week from Friday before returning to the Allstate Arena on February 24.