MILWAUKEE – The Chicago Wolves faced an uphill battle to make it into the 2009 playoffs, needing to win the remainder of their games and have both the Houston Aeros and Rockford IceHogs lose every game that they had left. But the team’s hopes were quickly snuffed out when the division leading Milwaukee Admirals knocked off the Wolves, 3-2, depriving them of a playoff run for only the second time in the franchise’s 15-year history.
With a postseason out of the question, the parent Atlanta Thrashers swapped goaltenders, sending recent ECHL graduate Dan Turple to Chicago and calling up Ondrej Pavelec. Pavelec will get some playing time since the Thrashers who also are out of the playoffs and are playing the role of spoiler without No. 1 netminder Kari Lethonen.
Five minutes into the deciding game, Milwaukee’s Ryan Maki swiped the puck from a rushing Brett Skinner and went in on Brent Krahn for a short-handed goal to put the Admirals up 1-0
Then is was all Andreas Thuresson’s show. The Milwaukee right wing scored twice on rebounds and temporarily forcing Chicago to make a goaltending change.
Krahn came back in the second period and settled down. Both teams had 19 shots, but none reached the back of the net.
In the third, the Wolves had plenty of opportunities with the man advantage but were only able to convert early in the period. Leading scorer Joe Motzko took the puck at the point, deked around a defender and was able to get the puck in past Drew MacIntyre at the 17:13 mark. A little over a minute later, Brett Sterling converted a seeing-eye shot from just a few feet from the blueline, but it proved too little too late.
McIntyre went 30-32 in saves while the Wolves Krahn went 21-24 with Turple stopping the only shot he faced.
A lot can be said about this year’s team. The Wolves had a new coaching staff and lost offensive depth with the departures of Darren Haydar and Jason Krog. They also had to do without the defensive leadership of Joel Kwiatkowski.
Chicago was abysmal on special teams. They ranked at the bottom third in the league or worse on the powerplay or the penalty kill. Wolves Head Coach Don Granato all season long preached playing the simple game, but time and time again the team was plagued by inconsistency and seldom gave a full 60-minute effort.
Last season the Wolves were known for crashing the net and creating goals. This year, there was a critical lack of urgency. We will see how the off-season goes and what the Atlanta Thrashers bring to the table for the Wolves. Team owner Don Levin is a person who hates losing with a passion so anything can happen.
As the saying goes in Chicago, “Wait till next year.”
Contact the author at matt.chin@prohockeynews.com
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