The End of a Streak: Where the Wolves Faltered

On January 7th, 2022, the Rockford IceHogs ended the Chicago Wolves’ 12-game win-streak in a dramatic 8-0 shutout. In a crazy turn of events, the last time the Wolves were shutout in a game was two years ago by the IceHogs, who were also backstopped by Collin Delia. 

Some of the pep in Rockford’s scoring step might have come from the fact forward Brandon Pirri signed a PTO with the IceHogs earlier in the day. Pirri always seems to give the IceHogs an extra bit of zest for life. Knowing this fact, it was clear the Wolves were going to have to play a bit harder to dominate the IceHogs.

Dominating isn’t exactly what the Wolves did on January 7th. Their reactions were sluggish and they struggled to muscle along the boards and through traffic. On a typical night, the Wolves have a fairly accurate shot. It’s not often they shoot wide of an open net or of the post at an odd angle. They almost always seem to find a way to register a shot. As we know, January 7th was not a typical night for the Wolves. For the bulk of the game, the Wolves struggled to accurately guide their shots towards the net.

In one instance during the second period, Josh Leivo missed a wide open net. At that time, Rockford was only leading 1-0. Had the puck gone into the net, it’s highly likely the energy and excitement of tying the game would have ignited something powerful within the Wolves. They might not have won the game, but it would have been much closer than being shutout while allowing eight goals.

Another thing which didn’t help the Wolves put their best foot forward is the fact they had signed two goaltenders the day of the game. Michael Lackey was the lucky of the two to start that night. It was his first career AHL game and, honestly, the blame doesn’t don’t fall squarely on his shoulders. This was a full team loss.

Let’s quickly highlight where the Wolves faltered on all eight goals. It’s not going to be a deep dive into each goal because most of the mistakes are easy to spot right away. To be fair, some of these goals were made on solid plays by the IceHogs. The kind of goals that would have been scored even if the Wolves were playing at their best.

Goal 1

For the IceHogs first goal of the night, the Wolves defense had no idea where Rockford forward Lukas Reichel was located on the ice. Which meant he was left alone in the circle near the slot, allowing Reichel to score a top-shelf goal on Lackey.

Now, this doesn’t just fall on the defense. The last person you have to get through to score a goal is the goaltender. In this situation, Lackey bit too soon thinking Reichel was going to shoot low instead of high.

Goal 2

Rockford’s second goal of the night started with a nice and easy pad save by IceHogs goaltender Delia. The Wolves lost sight of the rebound and just couldn’t quite keep up with the rush down the ice towards Lackey. This allowed IceHogs forward Andrei Altybarmakian the space to cut across the ice and launch the puck down the middle of the slot.

If you take a closer look at Lackey, you can see that he was one of two players who knew exactly where Altybarmakian was located on the ice. Unfortunately for Lackey, he didn’t know the path the puck was going to take to the net.

Goal 3

The third IceHogs goal was your normal run of the mill breakdown after a penalty expires. Chicago was not ready for Rockford forward Chad Yetman’s penalty to expire, let alone for him to bust out of the box like the Kool-Aid man and race down the ice towards the net.

This goal also falls on Lackey as he couldn’t the glove up in time to snatch Yetman’s shot out of the air.

Goal 4

The fourth goal Chicago allowed Rockford to score probably had goaltenders everywhere sweating with anxiety. Due to having to cut this clip down so it would fit in the article, what you don’t see is that Lackey was without a stick while the Wolves were killing a penalty for 18 seconds. To make matters worse, he lost the stick because a teammate slid head first into the crease and they collided for a moment.

For 18 seconds, Lackey moved smoothly across the crease and tracked the puck incredibly well. There was not a time when Lackey did not know where the puck was located during those 18 torturous seconds.

Despite their goalie not having a stick in his hand, the Wolves continued to allow cross-ice passes and couldn’t manage to trap the play in a small area away from the shooting lane. They also didn’t clog the lane in a way that would make it difficult for the IceHogs power play to fire off good quality shots towards Lackey.

There is only so much a netminder can do without a stick. At some point, the skaters on the ice have to figure out how to get their goalie a stick or find a way to get the refs to blow the play dead.

Plus, Jakub Pour’s shot flew just over Lackey’s helmet and slightly under the cross bar. It’s very unlikely that shot would have been stopped.

Goal 5

Rockford’s fifth goal of the night proves that faceoffs are important. If Chicago won that faceoff, we wouldn’t be talking about a goal right now.

Goal 6

Unfortunate is really the only way to describe Rockford’s sixth goal of the night. Things got a bit chaotic while the puck was loose. Wolves defender Jesper Sellgren tried to direct the puck away from the shooting lane by kicking it. However, he ended up whiffing the kick and Michal Teply was able to sweep the puck into the back of the net.

Very unfortunate.

Goal 7

I’m not even going to beat anyone up on the seventh goal of the night.  Pirri set IceHogs forward D.J. Busdeker  up with a beautiful, well-placed pass that allowed him to score a goal that even some of the best goaltenders in the league would not be able to stop.

Yes, if the Wolves had dominated along the boards in their offensive zone, this play might not have happened. But it did. So, enjoy watching it, because it was pretty.

Goal 8

Leading up to Rockford’s eighth goal of the night, the Wolves looked the best they did all night. They controlled after they won the faceoff and were zipping down the ice like Sonic the Hedgehog.

But then, Yetman snuck it at the blue line and stole the puck from the Wolves before zooming down the ice and firing a shot off at Lackey. The shot was stopped, but the puck laid right next to Lackey’s left skate. Wolves defender Joey Keane caught a quick glimpse of the puck. Before it could register with him to remove it from the crease, Rockford forward Cameron Morrison flew past the crease, tapping the puck across the goal line as he skated by.

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Streak By The Numbers

In an attempt to not have this article feel doomy and gloomy, here are some fun facts about the Chicago Wolves 12-game win streak.

• The Wolves outscored their opponents 46-21. Of the 46 goals, 30 of them were scored at even strength. 
• Most of the Wolves goals were scored in the third period (18). This was also where the Wolves allowed their opponent to score the least amount of goals (4).
• Forwards Josh Leivo, C.J. Smith, and Stefan Noesen led the team with six goals each. All of Smith’s goals were even strength goals. Noesen’s six goals came in the form of four even-strength, one three-on-three overtime, and one power play goal. Leivo scored the bulk of his goals on the power play (4) and lit the lamp twice on even strength. Even though it’s not counted on the score sheet, Leivo had the lone shootout goal during the Wolves’ 12-game win-streak.
• Captain Andrew Poturalski led the Wolves in points with 17.
• During the streak, the Wolves outshot their opponents 419-317. Most of their shots came in the first period (156). They also managed to hold their opponent to 98 shots in the opening stanza of play.
• The Wolves managed to only be collared for 53 penalties totaling 156 PIMs, compared to their opponents’ 73 infractions totaling 223 minutes. They were good boys in the first period, only racking up 16 PIMs over eight infractions.