2020-21 Chicago Wolves Game Notes ROCKFORD AT CHICAGO MAY 10, 2021 2 P.M. AHLTV.COM FAST AND FURIOUS FINAL WEEK 2020-21 The Chicago Wolves have four games on their agenda during the last week of the 2020-21 season. TALE OF THE TAPE Officially, the Wolves’ No. 1 goal is to complete their quest to be the AHL’s Central Division leader from start to finish. The Wolves’ magic number to clinch the Central sits at 6 entering today’s matinee REGULAR-SEASON SERIES against the Rockford IceHogs. 2-6-0-0 Rockford | 6-1-0-1 Chicago LAST MEETING April 17, 2021 While the Sam Pollock Trophy serves as the tangible goal, Wolves head coach Ryan Warsofsky finds himself focused on intangible targets as well. “I think (we’re focused) on what it means to be a pro hockey player,’ Warsofsky said. “We have players that are still learning. It doesn’t really matter if there’s playoffs or not. What it means to be a pro: 11-17-1-0 18-8-1-2 How you prepare yourself for practice is consistent. How you play is consistent. Right now, we don’t know what we’re getting shift-to-shift. That’s something that we’re preaching right now (as) coaches.” SERIES LEADERS WHAT WERE THE ODDS? ROCKFORD CHICAGO The Nashville Predators joined the NHL in 1998-99, one season after the Hartford Whalers relocated Skater G A Pts Skater G A Pts x Barratt 2 4 6 x Jeannot 5 5 10 to Raleigh, North Carolina, and became the Carolina Hurricanes. In the first 22 seasons since the Wilkie 2 4 6 Tomasino 4 5 9 Predators became a thing, they never faced the Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Franson 1 5 6 Novak 0 6 6 x Kalynuk 2 3 5 Suzuki 3 2 5 This year, though, the Chicago Wolves are partners with Carolina and Nashville due to COVID-19 limitations that prevented the Milwaukee Admirals (the Predators’ traditional AHL partner) from playing this season. SERIES GAME-BY-GAME Date Location Result SF-SA PP PK So who’s going to meet in the first round of this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs? Carolina and Nashville, Feb. 6 Rockford MetroCentre W, 5-4 36-32 1-5 3-6 of course, as they have clinched the first and fourth seeds, respectively, in the Central Division. Here Feb. 9 Wolves Training Facility W, 5-2 27-25 1-6 8-9 are some numbers on how evenly split the Wolves roster has been this season: Feb. 16 Rockford MetroCentre W, 3-2 36-39 1-4 5-5 March 27 Wolves Training Facility W, 6-2 37-26 2-5 1-1 Sixteen skaters on Carolina contracts (and three players signed to Wolves deals before Nashville March 28 Rockford MetroCentre W, 5-4 33-24 0-3 2-5 became a partner) have combined for 269 games, 54 goals and 95 assists. Six players (F Morgan April 3 Wolves Training Facility W, 4-2 35-33 1-1 3-3 Geekie, F Max McCormick, G Petr Mrazek, F Sheldon Rempal, D Joakim Ryan and F Drew Shore) April 7 Rockford MetroCentre L, 3-4 33-17 1-2 4-4 have suited up for the Canes and the Wolves. April 17 Rockford MetroCentre SOL, 3-4 26-41 1-2 2-2 May 10 Wolves Training Facility Seventeen skaters on Nashville or Milwaukee contracts have combined for 248 games, 61 goals and May 14 Rockford MetroCentre 102 assists. Eight players (D Frederic Allard, D Alex Carrier, D Jeremy Davies, F Tanner Jeannot, D May 15 Wolves Training Facility Tyler Lewington, F Sean Malone, F Rem Pitlick and F Cole Smith) have suited up for the Predators and the Wolves. ALL-TIME RECORD BREAKDOWN Seasons Home Road Overall Of the six goaltenders who’ve suited up, the four on Carolina/Wolves deals ( , Beck Warm Antoine 2007-21 49-21-5-3 28-37-5-6 77-57-10-9 Bibeau, Jeremy Helvig and Mrazek) have teamed up for 23 games and a 15-5-2 record. The two on Nashville deals (Connor Ingram and Devin Cooley) have played seven games with a 3-3-1 mark. WE ARE THE WOLVES Two years ago today, the Wolves hit the ice for Game 5 LAST TWO GAMES of the Central Division Finals at Iowa. The Wolves had SATURDAY, MAY 8 GRAND RAPIDS 3, (AT) CHICAGO 1 scored just one goal while dropping Games 3 and 4 at • Grand Rapids’ Tyler Spezia and Turner Elson scored 62 seconds apart late in the second period to Wells Fargo Arena. snap a tie and set up the Griffins’ win at the Wolves Training Facility. • Center Tommy Novak extended his point streak to six games with a second-period goal while Facing the fact that a third straight loss would put rookie forward Phil Tomasino pushed his point streak to five games with an assist. them in a 3-2 hole in the best-of-7 series, the Wolves • Goaltender Antoine Bibeau notched 26 saves. finally figured out a way to solve Iowa goaltender Andrew Hammond. FRIDAY, MAY 7 (AT) GRAND RAPIDS 5, CHICAGO 4 • The Wolves scored twice late in the third to tie, but Riley Barber’s goal with 13 seconds left Curtis McKenzie scored three goals, Stefan Matteau capped a four-point night and gave Grand Rapids the win at Van Andel Arena. delivered a clutch short-handed goal and AHL MVP • Forwards Dominik Bokk and David Cotton scored 86 seconds apart to forge a 4-4 tie with 4:58 Daniel Carr, Gage Quinney and Matt Weis also pro- left while forwards Anthony Richard and Phil Tomasino gave the Wolves a 2-1 first-period lead. duced goals as the Wolves earned a 7-4 victory. • Goaltender Beck Warm posted 22 saves. 2020-21 Chicago Wolves Game Notes 2020-21 BY THE NUMBERS HOME-ROAD CONTRASTS Regular Season Home Away Difference With four games left in the season, the Wolves are in good shape to lead the American Goals For 4.29 3.67 0.62 Hockey League in goals per game for the first time since the 2008 Calder Cup champions Goals Against 2.50 3.27 0.77 1 accomplished the feat. This year’s Wolves average 3.97 goals per night, which stands 0.14 goals ahead of second-place Syracuse. However, they’re going to need to score 22 goals over the RECORD BY OPPONENT final four games in order to break the franchise record for goals. The only Wolves team that has Record Win % averaged more than 4 per game is the 2006-07 crew that paced the AHL with 4.14 per game. Cleveland 0-2-1-1 .250 Grand Rapids 6-3-0-0 .667 Wolves forward Tommy Novak scored Chicago’s lone goal Saturday night against Grand Iowa 6-2-0-0 .750 Rapids, which boosted his season-best point streak to six games. The 24-year-old Wisconsin Rockford 6-1-0-1 .813 6 native has racked up three goals and seven assists during his streak that began April 26. His spree has boosted his season’s totals to six goals and 21 assists in 23 games — or 1.17 points per game. RECORD BY MONTH Record Win % Novak’s 27 points share the team lead with 19-year-old rookie forward Phil Tomasino, February 8-1-0-0 .889 March 4-1-0-1 .750 who assisted on Novak’s goal Saturday to push his point streak to five games. Tomasino April 6-3-1-1 .636 27 owns four goals and two assists in his five appearances since April 26. He also has May 0-3-0-0 .000 produced points in 12 of his last 13 games (7G, 9A) and boasts 12 goals and 15 assists to show for his first 25 professional games. Not only does Tomasino rank fifth among all AHL rookies in points (27), he shares second among all AHL players in plus-minus rating (+19). IN OVERTIME (1-1) The Wolves have played just 29 games, but 45 players already have suited up for at least Goaltender Saves-Shots (10-11) SV% Antoine Bibeau (1-0) 3-3 1.000 one game after rookie defenseman Marc Del Gaizo’s pro debut April 29. This year’s Connor Ingram (0-0) 5-5 1.000 45 squad appears it will run out of time to set the franchise record for most players used in Beck Warm (0-1) 7-8 .875 one season. The 2010-11 crew needed 47 players to complete an 80-game schedule. IN THE SHOOTOUT (0-2) Three of the Wolves’ five goals over the weekend were scored by rookies, which means the team’s 14 rookie skaters have combined for 55 goals (or 48 percent of the team’s Shooter Goals-Chances (0-5) SH% 55 goals). Nineteen-year-old forward Phil Tomasino leads the rookies (and the Wolves) Dominik Bokk 0-1 .000 with 12 goals. The other first-year contributors are David Cotton (10), Dominik Bokk (9), Seth Patrick Harper 0-1 .000 Tommy Novak 0-1 .000 Jarvis (7), Ryan Suzuki (5), Jamieson Rees (5), Cole Smith (5) and Zach Solow (2). David Cotton 0-2 .000 Defenseman Josh Healey, the only Wolves player to appear in all 29 games this year, Goaltender Saves-Shots (2-5) SV% ranks second among AHL defensemen and seventh in the league overall with 66 penalty Antoine Bibeau (0-1) 2-3 .667 66 minutes.