Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Why go away quietly? The Chicago Wolves aren’t about to start now.
This is a team that has made fighting back its trademark throughout the Calder Cup Playoffs. Expect that same pushback when they face the Toronto Marlies in Game 5 of the Calder Cup Finals tonight (7 ET,
, Sportsnet 360, NHL Network, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio).
The Wolves are accustomed to handling the emotional battle that comes with steering its way through the Calder Cup Playoffs. Go all the way back to the Central Division semifinals against the Texas Stars, when Chicago had a two-goal lead with eight minutes to go in Game 4 before the Stars rallied to win in overtime and force a deciding Game 5. The Wolves gathered themselves, came out and routed the Stars, 6-1, to advance.
Then came the Grand Rapids Griffins, a powerhouse team that had finished 20 points ahead of the second-place Wolves in the regular season. Any notion that the series would simply be a formality quickly came to a halt when the Wolves went into Grand Rapids and took Games 1 and 2 before eventually eliminating the Griffins in four games.
Their most dramatic effort came in the Western Conference Finals facing the Colorado Eagles. A 7-3 thumping in Game 5 at home set up a daunting task: go into Colorado and win twice at Blue FCU Arena – and do it without injured starting goaltender Cayden Primeau. Amir Miftakhov took over and made 36 saves in Game 6, then stopped 39 more shots in Game 7 to knock the Eagles out.
All of that brought the Wolves to the Calder Cup Finals to stare down the Marlies. But two close losses on home ice – both after letting leads slip away – followed by a 1-0 loss in Game 3 left Chicago and its season on the brink.
It got even more dicey in Game 4 at Coca-Cola Coliseum with the Calder Cup on standby for a possible presentation. Before a standing-room Toronto crowd, the Wolves faced a first-period barrage from the Marlies, who outshot them, 21-5. Primeau held them in, though, and the Wolves escaped the period down just 2-1. They regrouped in the second period, only to see the Marlies push the lead to 3-1 on a Ryan Tverberg goal with 1:55 to go in the frame.
Here came the Wolves, however.
Domenick Fensore’s rising left-circle shot beat Artur Akhtyamov. Just 1:05 later, a broken play allowed Justin Robidas to stuff in a wraparound. It was 3-3, the Marlies were calling time-out, and the Wolves had retaken control. Viktor Neuchev finished off the comeback 3:16 overtime, snapping a loose puck past Akhtyamov.
Hold the celebration.
“Our approach has been a Game 7 mentality,” Wolves head coach Spiros Anastas said after Game 4. “We’re 4-0 in elimination games. That’s our identity. That’s our team.
“We don’t give up; we fight back.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
