Comets End Season For Wolves
UTICA, N.Y. – In a winner-take-all Game 5, the Chicago Wolves' season came to a close as Brendan Gaunce's pair of second-period power-play goals carried the Utica Comets to a 4-2 victory Saturday night at the Utica Memorial Auditorium.
Forward Magnus Paajarvi and defenseman Joel Edmundson scored for the Wolves, who answered the Comets' first two scores during a wild second period that featured five goals.
Eighth-seeded Chicago kept looking for the equalizer in the third, but top-seeded Utica clinched the Western Conference Quarterfinal series on Sven Baertschi's empty-net goal with 43.8 seconds to go. Game 5 was the only one in the series not decided by one goal.
"Both teams were a little tired and a little careless," said Wolves head coach John Anderson. "I think we were careless one more time than they were. They're a good team. They were in first place for a reason, but I thought we played them tooth-and-nail. It's a matter of one goal here, one goal there. Bounce of the puck here, bounce of the puck there."
The Comets broke on top 18 seconds into the second period during 4-on-4 action as right wing Brandon DeFazio zigzagged down the right circle and lifted the puck over goaltender Jordan Binnington's blocker from just outside the crease.
The Wolves knotted the game at 7:11 of the second as Shane Harper and Pat Cannone set up yet another power-play goal. With Utica's Alex Friesen gone for four minutes after drawing Colin Fraser's blood with a high stick to the nose, the Wolves patiently worked their power play. Cannone fed the puck from the half-wall to Harper below the goal line, then Harper saucered a pass to Paajarvi in the right circle for a precise wrister.
Utica answered with Gaunce's power-play goal with 12:36 gone in the second. Two Wolves collided while changing on the penalty kill and Gaunce found space to skate down the left side and snipe one past Binnington's glove.
The Wolves allowed the Comets to enjoy that lead for just 30 seconds before Edmundson ripped a slap shot from the left point through traffic for his second goal in as many nights.
Chicago took another penalty 11 seconds later and Gaunce made the Wolves pay again as he crashed the right post to swat home a rebound for his second power-play goal in 2 minutes, 31 seconds.
After 18 frenetic minutes in the third period, Anderson pulled Binnington to get the extra attacker on the ice but the Wolves could not put a shot on net. The Comets clinched it with Baertschi's empty-net goal.
Binnington (2-3) stopped 27 of 30 shots while Markstrom (3-2) rejected 17 of 19.
-- courtesy of Chicago Wolves
