Wolves finish strong, take Calder Cup

ROSEMONT, Ill –  With a win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins the Chicago Wolves are the 2008 American Hockey League Calder Cup champions. Chicago won the series by defeating the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins by the score of 5-2 and took the series four games to two. The winning effort was powered by center Jason Krog who had a hat trick and an assist to lead his team to its second AHL title and the team’s fourth league trophy in its fourteen year history.
In the first two periods the teams played pretty evenly throughout. The Wolves were the first to strike late in the first on their specialty, the power play. The Penguins Ben Lovejoy was sent off for a holding and as the infraction was winding down defenseman Nathan Oystrick fired a shot from the point that got past Penguins netminder John Curry at the 17:39

mark.
In the first two periods the shots were coming at the teams in a flurry. The play went up and down but when it settled, both netminders were subjected to a flash of shots in each single shift. Down by a goal already, a mistake proved costly to the Penguins when they tried to clear the puck out from behind their net. The puck was intercepted at the slot in front of Curry by Krog who sized up the goal and fired to puck on in for the second goal of the night for the Wolves at the 2:05 mark of the middle frame.
Down 2-0, the Penguins fought back as Wilkes-Barre captain Nathan Smith fired a shot from the near slot that hit Chicago defenseman Brian Fahey. Fahey, who was turned around to block another player, was hit in the back of the head by the shot and the puck arced over Wolves goaltender Ondrej Pavelec. The puck landed in front of that net and winger Luca Captuti tipped the puck in to cut the lead to one.
A couple of minutes later the Wolves were in another frequent dilemma the suffered during the playoffs, a two-man deficit. Wilkes-Barre Coach Todd Richards called a timeout which paid off as they scored when defenseman Mark Ardelan fired a shot in front of the blueline that got past a screened Pavelec. Both teams poured out the shots with the Wolves getting the advantage in the period 14 to 12 in the second period.
Early in the final period the Penguins almost had a chance on a shot but it nipped the post and deflected away. The shot was so close to going in Pavelec tapped the goal posts in gratification and relief. While one might think the Penguins would build on their chance, at that point the Wolves began their domination of the Penguins. At the 4:44 mark Krog got his second of the game as he fired the game-winner to the top-shelf right underneath the crossbar after he received a long pass from Jesse Schultz. Krog finished his trifecta when he was able to get the breakaway goal into the net and hats started to fly.
For safe measure winger Brett Sterling placed the bookend on Krog’s goals by topping the score with a little over two minutes remaining in the game.
The Allstate Arena crowd of 9,808 witnessed their second Calder Cup victory at home on the 10th year anniversary of the Chicago Wolves first ever championship in the IHL when they won the Turner Cup. Steve Martins was the one player who was on that team as well as this one.
On top of winning the AHL Regular Season MVP, Krog was named the Playoff MVP with 12 goals and 26 assists. Krog commented on how his team has played in the playoffs.
“Teams tried every way to beat us this year,” said Krog. “No matter what they threw at us we seem to modify our game and come at them and be all right. The more we got pushed up against the wall or backed into the corner, the better we played.”
“When you are playing with great players it elevates your game. The coaching staff here gives me every chance to play in every situation,” said Krog. “I’m playing with another MVP (Darren) Haydar, [and others like] (Jesse) Schultz, (Brett) Sterling, (Joe) Motzko…you can go down the lineup also. When you are playing with guys like that your game is going to be elevated.”
Both goaltenders were amazing in Game 6 and that is what you expect from a finals. Pavelec went 25 of 27 in the save department while Curry was 33 for 38. Pavelec’s record in the playoffs was 16-8. The total shots were 38 for Chicago and 27 for Wilkes-Barre. A total of only six penalties were called with each team going 1 for 2 on the power play.
This was Wilkes-Barre’s third trip to the finals in its nine years in the league and they have lost every series dating back to 2001.
Haydar was given a token of appreciation from AHL President/CEO Dave Andrews for breaking the playoff goal and points record this season.
“Obviously it starts from the back end out,” said Wolves GM KevinCheveldayoff. “When you got a player like Pavelec in there at 20 years old, the poise and the confidence that he has in himself, it just translates outward to the rest of the hockey team. It became apparent that we were going to ride on his shoulders and that he was going to be the guy. The [team] just fed off that from the beginning, right to the end.”
To see a guy like [defenseman Arturs) Kulda make that pass in the third period to spring Krog free for the goal. That’s amazing. That’s a 19-year-old kid, {he) comes in here and plays every single game in the playoffs. It’s a credit to the Atlanta scouting staff, it’s the credit to our coaching staff, and it’s the credit to the players. Really it’s all about the players.”
Wolves fans could learn to take winning for granted, and the team is already looking forward to 2008-09.
“Absolutely (we have started planning for next year), you know it is a never-ending process here,” said Cheveldayoff. “But we are going to enjoy this and training camp isn’t really that far away.”