Wolf Prowl – October 18th, 2011

AHL veteran Darren Haydar scored his first goal of the 2011-12 campaign on Friday
(Photo Jeff Hanisch/Milwaukee Admirals)

So we’ve been satiating your appet….wait…you’ve been licking your li…still too animal-like hm…How about: we’ve been making noises….oh for goodness’ sake!

Here it is, the first edition of Wolf Prowl, the Army’s weekly rundown of the Chicago Wolves. Yesterday we brought you an interview with Ted Gruber, noted (by some, well me and Drance anyway) as guru of the Wolves blogging scene. During pre-season we talked to Jason Shaver, play-by-play man of the Wolves, but today is a different, well, beast. (The animal analogies seem unavoidable, don’t they). Today is the first entry in what will be a weekly update about the Canucks AHL affiliate: the Chicago Wolves.

The Wolves played their third and fourth games of the season, with Saturday’s tilt being the first home game of the year. Both games were a continuation of the previous weekend’s trend: a lot of wheel spinning.

Friday’s loss in Milwaukee was marked by a solid performance, but the offense only managed 2 goals again, giving them just 5 goals on the season in three games. Saturday’s home opener was widely anticipated, as most Wolves’ fans were excited about the new affilation with the Canucks. Once again, the attack mis-fired, only getting 2 goals and losing in the shootout. That’s their second SOL in four games. The PK gave up 3 goals on Friday, but wasn’t beaten on Saturday.

Darren Haydar: the AHL vet is leading things early, as expected. Got his first goal on Friday.

Eddie Lack: The Stork has picked up from last season, his GAA is now 2.22 and his save percentage is 92.2%. He needs some support.

Jordan Schroeder: scored his first of the year on Friday, but is now a -4.

Mark Mancari: two assists on Friday, but a -2 for the weekend.

Ryan Parent made his season debut for the Wolves on Friday, but was again out of the lineup on Saturday. Anton Rodin, who’d been battling a throat infection got into the lineup for Friday’s game as well.

Next weekend’s a tripleheader: home and away with Rockford and then a trip on Sunday to Peoria. The Wolves need to start putting the puck in the net if they want to get themselves into the win column. Craig MacTavish will clearly spend a lot of time on special teams (his teams have historically been excellent on the PK), and may alter his lines in an attempt to find some goals. 

Rockford is 3-1-0 with 14 goals for and 11 against. Peoria haven’t won yet either, 0-3-0-1 8 GF 16 GA