2020-21 Chicago Wolves Game Notes CHICAGO AT ROCKFORD MARCH 28, 2021 4 P.M. AHLTV.COM FOUR IS THE MAGIC NUMBER 2020-21 The Chicago Wolves improved to 4-0 against the Rockford IceHogs this season with a 6-3 victory TALE OF THE TAPE Saturday night at the Wolves Training Facility in Hoffman Estates. In many ways, four was the magic number for the first of four games between the Wolves and IceHogs from March 27 to April 7. REGULAR-SEASON SERIES 0-4-0-0 Rockford | 4-0-0-0 Chicago Four: That’s the number of goals the Wolves scored during the opening minute of a period Saturday LAST MEETING March 27, 2021 night. David Cotton and Max Lajoie came through during the first 44 seconds of the first period, Dominik Bokk tallied a power-play goal 51 seconds in the second period and Tanner Jeannot scored 51 seconds into the third period. Four: The Wolves scored the game’s first four goals in the opening 21 minutes to mark the third time 6-10-1-0 11-2-0-1 this season they’ve broken to a 4-0 lead and the sixth time they’ve held a four-goal lead at any point in a game. SERIES LEADERS Four: Bokk’s marker pushed his goal streak to four games — tying fellow rookie Seth Jarvis and Rem ROCKFORD CHICAGO Pitlick for the Wolves’ longest goal streaks this season. Bokk can tie Ontario’s Quinton Byfield (the Skater G A Pts Skater G A Pts No. 2 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft) for the AHL’s longest goal streak this season if he tallies today. By Wilkie 2 3 5 Jeannot 2 4 6 the way, Bokk speaks four languages: German, Swedish, Russian and English. Franson 1 3 4 Novak 0 6 6 Barratt 1 2 3 Tomasino 3 1 4 Kalynuk 1 2 3 x Jarvis 2 2 4 SPEAKING OF BOKK... The 21-year-old from Schweinfurt, Germany, is called a rookie because this marks his first season SERIES GAME-BY-GAME playing professionally in North America, but he started playing professionally in 2017-18 for Vaxjo HC Date Location Result SF-SA PP PK in Sweden’s top league. Bokk was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the 2018 NHL Feb. 6 Rockford MetroCentre W, 5-4 36-32 1-5 3-6 Draft before being traded to the Carolina Hurricanes shortly before the 2019-20 season. Feb. 9 Wolves Training Facility W, 5-2 27-25 1-6 8-9 Feb. 16 Rockford MetroCentre W, 3-2 36-39 1-4 5-5 Bokk’s experience overseas helps when it comes to playing against full-grown men, but he has been March 27 Wolves Training Facility W, 6-2 37-26 2-5 1-1 going through growing pains here. In his first eight games, he posted no goals with three assists and March 28 Rockford MetroCentre was held out of the lineup for a weekend. In his last four games, he owns four goals and one assist — April 3 Wolves Training Facility and he’s not just better at putting the puck in the net. April 7 Rockford MetroCentre April 17 Rockford MetroCentre “Slow start,” said Wolves head coach Ryan Warsofsky. “To be expected of a young kid coming from April 21 Wolves Training Facility Europe (and) hasn’t played on a North American ice sheet before. Where he is now to where he was on May 14 Rockford MetroCentre Day 1 is much-improved. He’s more engaged in the hockey game. He’s hanging on to pucks. Obviously May 15 Wolves Training Facility the points and the goals help, but from a coaching standpoint, we’re looking at how he’s playing away from the puck, how he’s playing with the puck — things that we’re really preaching on him to help him ALL-TIME RECORD BREAKDOWN make the next level.” Seasons Home Road Overall 2007-21 48-21-5-3 27-36-5-5 75-56-10-8 “He’s just more engaged. That’s the one word that we talk to ‘Bokker’ about: He has to be engaged in the hockey game. And he’s done really good job with that the last three weeks. WE ARE THE WOLVES In 1998, defenseman Jeremy Mylymok played in all LAST TWO GAMES 22 postseason games to help the Chicago Wolves SATURDAY, MARCH 27 (AT) CHICAGO 6, ROCKFORD 3 capture their first championship. He wound up playing • Rookie forward David Cotton and defenseman Max Lajoie scored in the opening 44 seconds to parts of three seasons in Chicago and posted 4 goals set the tone for the Wolves’ third win in a row. and 8 assists in 74 regular-season games along with 1 • Cotton posted two first-period goals while Lajoie (G, 2A), Tanner Jeannot (G, 2A), Dominik Bokk goal and 2 assists in 32 playoff games. and Ryan Suzuki also scored goals and Tommy Novak handed out three assists. • Goaltender Antoine Bibeau notched 23 saves to pick up the win. But Saturday night, the hockey world’s eyes were on Mylymok’s 19-year-old son, Luke, who ended the SUNDAY, MARCH 14 CHICAGO 6, (AT) IOWA 2 longest NCAA Tournament game in history with a goal • The Wolves converted three of their four power-play opportunities and notched a short-handed at 2:13 of the fifth overtime to lift University of Min- goal to sweep the weekend series at Wells Fargo Arena. nesota-Duluth to the Frozen Four with a 3-2 win over • Rookie forward Dominik Bokk scored the team’s first goal for the third game in a row while North Dakota. Luke had just one other goal during his David Warsofsky, Tanner Jeannot, Max Lajoie, Josh Healey and Phil Tomasino also scored. freshman year until his tally more than six hours after • Goaltender Jeremy Helvig posted 29 saves to improve his record to 4-0-0. the game began. 2020-21 Chicago Wolves Game Notes 2020-21 BY THE NUMBERS HOME-ROAD CONTRASTS Regular Season Home Away Difference Yes, if the Wolves play all 33 games on their current regular-season schedule, this season will Goals For 4.89 3.80 1.09 only be 43 percent as long as a normal American Hockey League slate. But after providing Goals Against 2.44 2.40 0.02 1 that caveat, it’s still intriguing to note this year’s squad is on pace to shatter the franchise record for most goals per game. These Wolves have scored 63 goals in 13 games — a league-leading RECORD BY OPPONENT average of 4.50 per outing. The only Wolves team that has averaged more than 4 per game is the Record Win % 2006-07 crew that paced the AHL with 4.14 per game. Cleveland 0-1-0-1 .250 Grand Rapids 3-1-0-0 .750 Rarely has scoring the first goal mattered so much to one team. The Wolves are 9-0-0-0 Iowa 4-0-0-0 1.000 when they scored the first goal, but 2--2-0-1 when they don’t. In fact, only two of the Wolves’ Rockford 4-0-0-0 1.000 2 first 13 games have featured any lead changes — and none since the first two games of the year. Chicago recovered from a 1-0 deficit on Opening Night (Feb. 5) against Grand Rapids to earn a RECORD BY MONTH 3-1 victory. The next day at Rockford in the IceHogs’ opener, the Wolves fell behind 2-0 and 3-2 during Record Win % the opening 25 minutes before rallying to secure a 5-4 win. But in each of the Wolves’ last 11 games, February 8-1-0-0 .889 March 3-1-0-1 .700 the team that scored first has gone ahead and earned the win without trailing. April 0-0-0-0 .000 May 0-0-0-0 .000 Prior to Saturday night’s 6-3 win over Rockford, 23-year-old defenseman Max Lajoie had 3 played in 190 professional games (62 NHL, 127 AHL and 1 ECHL). Never had he produced 3 IN OVERTIME (0-0) points in the same game...until Saturday night. He scored a goal 44 seconds into the night, assisted on David Cotton’s second goal of the first period and handed out an assist on Tanner Jeannot’s third-period tally. Lajoie owns three goals and seven assists in 11 games this year, so he’s Goaltender Saves-Shots (3-3) SV% Antoine Bibeau (0-0) 3-3 1.000 scoring at a much higher rate than prior to joining the Carolina Hurricanes organization via trade Jeremy Helvig (0-0) 0-0 .000 in January. He owns 7 goals and 8 assists in 62 NHL games along with 8 goals and 35 assists in 128 Beck Warm (0-0) 0-0 .000 AHL appearances. IN THE SHOOTOUT (0-1) The Wolves have played just 14 games, but 35 players already have suited up for at least one game. Last year, the franchise needed just 37 players to get through the 61 games Shooter Goals-Chances (0-3) SH% 35 before the pandemic brought the season to a permanent halt. For those curious about Dominik Bokk 0-1 .000 the breakdown between the Wolves’ two NHL partners, the 14 skaters from the Nashville Predators David Cotton 0-1 .000 Tommy Novak 0-1 .000 organization have combined for 121 games of action.