HOFFMAN ESTATES, Illinois – The Chicago Wolves reeled off six goals in a row to overcome an early deficit and earn a 6-1 exhibition victory over the Rockford IceHogs Wednesday afternoon at Triphahn Center.
Rookie forwards David Cotton, Jason Cotton and Jamieson Rees combined for four goals in their professional debuts while Elmhurst native Lukas Craggs also scored and veteran forward Sean Malone contributed a short-handed goal and two assists in the Wolves’ lone exhibition before their opener Friday, Feb. 5.
Rockford opened the scoring at 4:17 of the first on defenseman Chad Krys’ power-play goal. The Wolves pulled even at 1:28 of the second when the 19-year-old Rees knocked a rebound past IceHogs starting goaltender Scott Darling.
Malone gave Chicago the lead for good at 14:36 of the second period with a short-handed redirect against Rockford backup Cale Morris.
The Wolves pulled away in the third period starting with Cotton’s bar-down wrister at 3:22. Craggs scored at 7:19 to make it 4-1, then David Cotton — Jason’s younger brother — added a pair of goals four minutes apart to close the scoring.
Antoine Bibeau started in goal for the Wolves and picked up the win with 16 saves in the first two periods. Rookie Jeremy Helvig entered at the start of the third period and rejected all eight shots he faced.
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