ROSEMONT, Ill.—The Wolves dispatched the Iowa Wild 4-1 on Saturday night at Allstate Arena.
Josiah Slavin, Skyler Brind’Amour, Justin Robidas and Nikita Pavlychev scored for the Wolves, who won for the second game in a row while handing the Wild their third consecutive defeat. Ryan Suzuki and Nick Swaney each chipped in two assists as the Wolves improved to 2-2-0-0 during their current five-game homestand.
“It was kind of sloppy but good teams find a way to win those hockey games,” Robidas said. “It’s fun to get these two in a row.”
The Wolves jumped to an early advantage thanks to Slavin’s ninth goal of the season 5 minutes, 57 seconds into the game. Swaney one-timed the puck toward the Iowa goal and Slavin redirected it past Wild netminder Samuel Hlavaj to the stick side. Swaney and Suzuki earned assists on the score.
The score held until midway through the second when Brind’Amour extended the Wolves’ lead to 2-0. Playing in his 100th career American Hockey League game, the forward banged home a rebound of a Yanick Turcotte shot from in close to extend Brind’Amour’s goal-scoring streak to three games. Turcotte and Noel Gunler recorded assists on Brind’Amour’s 11th marker of the season.
Late in the second, the Wild cut the deficit to 2-1 on a tally by Travis Boyd to set up a tense third period.
Robidas’ power-play goal midway through the third again gave the Wolves a two-goal lead. The forward pounced on a rebound of a Suzuki shot and ripped a shot from the right circle that sailed past Hlavaj to the glove side for Robidas’ 11th goal of the season. Suzuki and Bradly Nadeau had assists.
“We’ve been talking about the last couple of games that we need to be a little bit more hungry than the other team,” Robidas said. “Nadeau made a great play to Suzuki and I got the rebound, held it a little bit and picked my spot.”
Pavlychev capped the scoring with an empty-net goal, assisted by Swaney and goaltender Spencer Martin. The score was Pavlychev’s fourth of the season.
Martin (18 saves) earned the win for the Wolves while Hlavaj (36 saves) took the loss for the Wild.
Chicago moved to 26-20-2-0 on the season while Iowa dropped to 16-30-3-1.
“We had a couple of good meetings at the beginning of the week because we knew we needed to turn things around,” Robidas said. “Our group stuck together. It’s a long season and those little losing streaks are going to happen, but…
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