ROSEMONT, Ill. (WTVO/WQRF)–The IceHogs had the upper hand on the Chicago Wolves during the regular season. The Wolves might have used that as fuel Thursday night in their first game of their playoff series. The Wolves defeated the IceHogs 6-2.
The Wolves dominated the game outshooting the IceHogs 38-20. They killed off all four IceHogs power-plays while cashing in on two of their own.
The IceHogs scored first midway through the first period when rookie Lukas Reichel stole the puck. He got out on a breakaway and beat Alex Lyon.
But the Wolves responded by scoring the next six goals of the game, before Evan Barratt rounded out the scoring with a late goal for the IceHogs.
Stefan Noesen, the AHL’s leading goal-scorer during the regular season scored two of the Wolves goals.
“Sometimes pucks don’t go our way and that was one of those nights,” said Barratt. “It sucks. We left Sody (goaltender Arvid Sodeblom) out to dry, but we know that we’re going to come back better, and he’s definitely going to keep us in the games from here on out.”
“We didn’t play hard enough,” said Reichel. “If we play hard we know we can beat them. We did it in the regular season.”
“I thought we were on our heels there early on in the first period,” said IceHogs interim head coach Anders Sorensen. “At the end of the day it’s one game right.”
The IceHogs will try to get back on track in game two Saturday night in Rosemont.
