Rosemont, IL - Jason Krog started off Game Two of the Western Conference Finals as he finished the first game by scoring not one but two goals on the first two shots of the game.

The Wolves came out and dominated the North Division finalists, the Toronto Marlies, by easily winning the game in a 5-0 rout. The series now heads up to Toronto for two games beginning with Game 3 on Tuesday night at the Ricoh Coliseum.

Twenty-five seconds after the puck drop, Wolves defensemen Joel Kwiatkowski made a move that seemed to freeze Marlies goaltender Scott Clemmensen as he made a saucer-pass to Krog for the shot in on the open net. This goal was the fastest in playoff history for the franchise.

“Our team seems to get a big boost when we score first, (it) just seems like we get life and we get our feet going and get into it more,” said Krog. “We have been fortunate that we have been able to score the first goal the last couple of games to get it going.”

Just as everyone was trying to settle into the game from the quick score, the Wolves center did it again as he skated through the point and centered a shot pass Clemmensen who looked rattled in giving up the first goal early. The score was Krog’s fifth goal in two games.

“When he (Krog) gets going, he’s tough to stop. He’s smart with the puck. When you think you got him, he makes a great pass,” said Chicago Head Coach John Anderson. “He’s got great vision. (He) and (Darren) Haydar together are pretty scary, and (Joe) Motzko is pretty smart with it too.”

The next goal surprisingly was the only goal scored on the power play which has been the Chicago’s bread and butter. With a two-man advantage from two slashing penalties, the Wolves played a little tic-tac-toe as Krog sent the puck from the far dot to Haydar who was waiting at the near circle where he shot a centering pass back to Kwiatkowski who fired a laser into the net.

Chicago widened the score 13:51 into the second period when center Bryan Little was on the break. Little fired a shot on net that hit Clemmensen’s stick and deflected up high, over, and behind the Marlies netminder and landed on the crease where Little was able to get his own rebound to tap the puck in. The Wolves finished the scoring in the Game 4 minutes later as winger Joey Crabb was able to tap in the bouncing puck that the Marlies were trying to clear.

Wolves goaltender Ondrej Pavelec again was again stellar in goal as he stopped all 24 shots he faced. It was a pretty light load for Pavelec as the team was playing extremely well in front of him stopping pucks even before they reached him.

“We are playing great. They (his defense) blocked a lot of shots,” said Pavelec “They did a great job in front of the net and that is a little bit easier if they block the shot and play it simple.”

Clemmensen stopped 18 of the 23 shots looked at before being replaced in the third by Justin Pogge who only got three looks from the Wolves. On the power play, the Wolves went one for seven while the Marlies had six opportunities.

With four seconds left in the game all the players got tangled into a bit of extra-curricular action as the Toronto’s frustrations began to show. Pogge noticed one of his players get slashed with a two-hander and came to his defense at neutral ice. Pavelec started to rush in to assist but was told by those on the bench not to.

“We had a few breaks early and we caught them on their heels just a little bit,” said Anderson. “When you have breaks you have to take advantage of them, so I think we did that. I thought we played pretty good defensively. We didn’t allow a lot of shots in the first couple of periods.”

Game Notes
As the series heads up north to Toronto, the Wolves have a lot on their minds after what happened to them in the Rockford where they started with a three game losing streak during the regular season. But the team and coaches hope that they have learned from their mistakes and have grown into a much stronger team and will be able to retain their lead.

Chicago first-linerBrett Sterling is still listed day-to-day with a lower body injury suffered in the series against Rockford. As we have seen in the last two games, the Chicago Wolves have great depth with Motzko moving up into Sterling’s role, which Motzko has played on in the past.

“The guys take pride in stepping up into certain situations and they’ve done that,” said Anderson. “Again we would love to get (Sterling) back in the lineup right now and he is still day-to-day. We are not based on one player.”

Rosemont, IL - With AHL President and Chief Executive Officer David Andrews watching in the stands, the Chicago Wolves defeated the Toronto Marlies 4-2 to win the Western Conference Finals four games to one. The team will now face the winner of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton--Portland series with Game 7 of that series being played Saturday.

Chicago proved again that their strength is in the special teams; mainly the power play where the Wolves scored three tonight with the last being an empty net goal.

“It was really wonderful; the power play has been sputtering on and off all series here,” said Chicago Wolves Head Coach John Anderson. “I’m glad it came out big tonight.”

Toronto went with Justin Pogge in goal again after having a super night in his first playoff game with a big win 6-1. Chicago again was without two of their top wingers who are out due to injury, but in the end did not miss them. Brett Sterling was injured during Game Seven in the last series against Rockford with an undisclosed lower body injury and Joe Motzko was hurt in the Game 3 in Toronto and is out with an upper body problem.

The game started pretty auspiciously as Toronto got the better of Chicago by setting the pace. In the first five minutes, neither team had any rhythm as they seemed to try to feel each other out. All this seemed to change as the Wolves got a quality scoring chance that they couldn’t convert for a score. This was the wakeup call that turned into a game that was more physical. The Marlies play seemed to rise as the Wolves couldn’t get anything past Pogge on shots that were inches away from a score.

The Marlies struck first which is usually a good omen for a win. Brent Aubin got his first goal of the series as he fired a low shot in on Ondrej Pavelec after receiving a backhanded centering-pass from Alex Foster. Then late in the period, with the Wolves down one player due to a too many men on the ice penalty, an infraction that seems to happen too often for the Wolves in the playoffs, the Marlies struck again putting the Wolves backs to the wall. On a play that the Wolves normally score on, it went the other way. With Chicago-area native, Andy Wozniewski by the side of the net, John Mitchell slide a pass in that Wozniewski easily tapped in with no defenders around.

Things started to turn around in the second for the Wolves thanks to the undisciplined play of the Marlies. With about 15 seconds left on the two-man advantage, defenseman Joel Kwiatkowski fired a shot in on the right side of the goal to cut the deficit to one. Just sixteen seconds later the Wolves tied it up as Steve Martins fired a centering pass to Nathan Oystrick who slapped it towards the goal and Bryan Little deflected in.

The 5:59 mark of the third was the turning point for the Wolves, although at first it did not seem it to be. Chicago’s Andre Deveaux was given a five-minute major for kneeing Chris Harrington who had to be helped off the ice. On top of that, Deveaux was also given a game-misconduct due to the severity of the kneeing infraction. During this time Pavelec was on the top of his game making a sliding deflection save on a sure goal that pushed the team to kill off the remaining time on the penalty.

“That one save, saved the series maybe,” said Anderson. “It was unbelievable. You know you are going to give up one or two, but you don’t want to give one up like that, again you best penalty killer is your goalie.”

After killing off the penalty the teams continued to vie for the leading goal, at the 14:52 mark Wolves Captain Darren Haydar, in baseball bunt-style, stuck his stick out and deflected the goal in for the game-winner. The Wolves wrapped up the scoring and the series with an empty-net goal from Kevin Doell.

Pavelec stopped 23 of the 25 shots he faced while Pogge went 19 saves on 22 Chicago opportunities. On the power play the Marlies were 1 for 7 and what more can you say about the Wolves power play as they scored on 33% of nine man-advantages they enjoyed this evening?

Outside of the two goals, Toronto couldn’t get deep into the zone and make the plays they needed to score. The team was taking a majority of their shots far from the crease and not creating any traffic. Their power play was snuffed as they couldn’t get set as the Wolves always seemed to take the puck away. The Wolves started the opposite way as they making their moves around the net only to be slightly out of sync and unable to force the puck in for the score. But again the Wolves won with their special teams.

Games notes:
With two assists in this game AHL regular season MVP Jason Krog is starting to look like Jason Krog playoff MVP as extended his point streak to nine straight games with 9 goals and 8 assists.

Kwiatkowski has scored in each of the last four games giving him seven on the postseason.

The game-winner scored by Haydar tied him with Jody Gage at 51 goals scored for the all-time Calder Cup playoff leader. In addition to the goal he also had an assist on the Kwiatkowski goal to bring him just two points shy of Willie Marshall as the playoff leader in points at 119.

The win tonight gives the team its third appearance in the Calder Cup Finals. They won the Cup in their first appearance against Bridgeport in the 2001-02 season while losing to Philadelphia in the 2004-05 season. The Wolves also made it to the finals three times in the old International Hockey League, winning twice. A win in the finals would give Anderson his fourth championship at the highest developmental league level and should put him in consideration for an NHL coaching post.

With Chicago having the highest seed of the teams left, the Calder Cup Finals will start at the Rosemont Arena starting with Game 1 on Thursday, May 29 at 7pm and Game 2 on Sunday, June 1 at 3pm.