Weekend Series Against Cleveland Shows Growth in Chicago

At the beginning of the season, Chicago Wolves head coach Brock Sheahan made note of the fact the team was still getting to know one another and lines were being sorted out.

“That will be a work in progress in practice and getting to know players,” said Sheahan on opening night. “I got an idea when we were in Carolina, but seeing them with us more will help with that for sure.”

From the beginning, his goal has been to win games. To do that, Sheahan explained it’s necessary to do a few things. “Growing as a team and continuing to add pieces; that’ll be our goal day-to-day.”

After going 2-3-1-0 in October, the Wolves headed to Ohio to play the Cleveland Monsters where they split the weekend series 1-1. While in Cleveland, the Wolves showed they have grown since the start of the season.

Special Teams Are Heating Up

You can see things starting to click for the Wolves as the season rolls along, especially on their special teams. At the beginning of the season, Chicago was a little sketchy. Their power play was constantly manhandled by the opposition and their penalty kill struggled to keep pace.

Now, the Wolves special teams are a bit more consistent and able to keep up with their opposition. 

On Saturday night, the solid Monsters power play went 2/7. That speaks volumes to how the Wolves penalty kill played. They created a diamond that clogged up shooting lanes and shut down roads to rush the net. If a member of Cleveland’s PP was able to get to the net, Chicago’s killers incessantly whacked anyone sitting on the crease. Simply put, the Wolves PK made the Monsters work hard on the PP.

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Perlini’s Hat Trick Was A Team Effort

During the Wolves’ 5-2 win over the Monsters on Friday, forward Brendan Perlini notched his second career AHL hat trick. All three goals highlighted Chicago’s ability to draw attention away from some of their more dangerous players. By getting into aggressive puck battles in the neutral zone and constantly passing the puck around the net, the Wolves were able to create space for Perlini to silently sneak into scoring range.

There was also a lot of teamwork which went into making Perlini’s goals comes to fruition. At least four members of the Wolves touched the puck before Perlini took a shot on net. If a player didn’t have the puck, they were laying hits or tapping their sticks on the ice in an attempt to look like they were setting up for a shot. Both big and small, everyone had a role to play and played it well.

No Quit

The word “quit” is very clearly not in the Wolves’ vocabulary.

Despite being down 4-2 with 5:43 to go in Saturday’s game, Chicago never stopped hustling. In fact, during the final minutes of the game, they pinned the Monsters into the Wolves offensive zone. They drew up play after play, but Cleveland stood tall against every attack. Yet, Chicago never gave up. 

This kind of attitude in a tough Central Division will give the Wolves a edge this season.