It has been a good weekend for Chicago Wolves fans. Friday night the Wolves warmed up for their home opener by shutting out the Quad city Flames 1:0 in the Wireless Center before 2387 Flames fans. Quad City goalie Matt Keetley turned away 25 SOG while Chicago's Ondrej Pavelec another 25. Penalty minutes were not equally divided between teams however, Quad City received 14 min/7 infractions while referee Ian Croftt awarded Chicago 8 min/4 inf. A number although not excessive to either team does appear unbalanced on the surface. That is unless the Wolves had their angel faces on for the night.
Home opener in Rosemont started with what has become regular event, raising the championship banner from the previous season. When it came time for all members of last years squad to join dignitaries for a photo around the Clader Cup it became apparent that by quick estimation 60% of this years team are returnees. Most of which may be not be "stars" but come with experience of the cup run none the less and this bodes well for the team and the future season.
As the game unfolded against the Peoria Rivermen both teams seem eager to test each other out both in front of the net and to fill the lines of each others dance cards. Boris Valabik was challenged several times in the first period alone, this "chippiness" continued throughout the night. In the end Valabik finished the game with 8 penalty minutes, a fairly light night for the Wolves "Excitable Boy". In the closing moments of the game Chicago's Joey Crabb and Peoria's Brad Winchester both dropped the gloves at the 20:00 mark. So intense were the initial moments the linesmen simply let the players have at it for a full minute before intervening. The crowd went wild and the players offered support by thumping their sticks on the ice. Indeed, a classic hockey moment. PIMs for both teams totalled a balanced Peoria 27 min/12 inf, Chicago 25 min/11 inf, by referee Nygel Pelletier. As always an observer could argue that there were missed calls on both sides but obviously infractions were awarded evenly by minutes.
In the end the only statistic that only matters is the score, the Chicago Wolves retired to the locker room as the victor 2:3 over the Peoria Rivermen. The home team is now 500 in the young season after a rocky start, lets hope they keep the new growth and winning going. The next Chicago Wolves home game is next Tuesday October 21st at the Allstate Arena, puck drop at 7:00pm. Given the fact that it is a week day game the attendance most likely will be much lower than the opening games 11,988. Good seats should be available until game time.
On a personal note many thanks to Snydes and her sister Fids who arranged the import of a carload of Tim Horton's Timbits to celebrate the home opener. It was an absolutely insanely delicious way to start the season. These two ladies smuggled a carload of Timbits for posters on www.wolfkeeper.org. As I have said before you just have to believe in insanity like this, these are the things that make the sport of hockey and it's culture the best.
Powderhornhockey
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