ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Chicago Wolves never faced the Providence Bruins, owners of the AHL’s best record in 2007-2008, on Chicago’s march to the Calder Cup last season. But the long overdue matchup finally took place on Oct. 29, and provided an early test of how the defending champs stacked up against quality competition.
Providence came into the game riding a 5-0-1-0 start, but got blitzed by six Wolves goals and wound up getting shut out.
The Wolves (5-1-1-1) opened the scoring while down one man. Colin Stuart picked up an errant puck and dragged it in front of the crease until he found the right spot to lift a shot over goaltender Tuukka Rask’s glove.
Past the halfway point of the game, Wolves defender Boris Valabik took control of the puck off a faceoff and fired a bullet towards the net that was deflected by Junior Lessard between Rask’s pads for tally No. 2. Chicago ended the first period scoring, as Valabik picked up another assist, dishing the puck to Joe Motzko, who streaked down the near lane and fired a wrister in to close the period 3-0.
In the second, Rask was relieved by Kevin Regan, who kept Chicago off the board. But the third period saw Motzko score again, off an outlet pass from Arturs Kulda.
At the end of the period, the Wolves finally put away the Bruins. Matt Anderson scored on a Lessard helper and Valabik got a goal of his own. to finish the game giving him a goal and two assist.
“It’s simple,” said Valabik, who had only one goal and seven assists all last season, of his newfound scoring prowess. “Just starting to get the puck on net, get it to the first guy and good things happen. Mostly our forwards play phenomenally down low. They battled so many pucks out and we won almost every battle on the boards and it is easy to play behind forwards like that because when they win every battle and you get the loose puck if you want it or not.
Wolves’ Coach Don Granato was pleased with his team’s overall effort. “I think we caught a team by surprise tonight, a team that didn’t know us coming in, obviously they came in undefeated. A credit to our guys was the work ethic and I think that surprised our opponent, but we didn’t let off the gas pedal in that area. Start to finish I think the guys worked very hard.
To punctuate the success, the Wolves organization held their ring ceremony for the members who were on last year’s championship squad. Contact the author at matt.chin@prohockeynews.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment.