First-Place Wolves roll in San Antonio

Chicago Wolves goaltender Oscar Dansk earned his second shutout of the campaign on Saturday night in a 5-0 victory over the San Antonio Rampage at AT&T Center.

Forwards Tye McGinn, Keegan Kolesar, Matthew Weis and Tomas Hyka and rookie defenseman Nic Hague all scored for Chicago (39-19-5-3) while Dansk (22-9-4) denied all 31 shots he faced.

The Wolves maintained their 4-point lead over Grand Rapids in the Central Division race while cutting their magic number for a Calder Cup Playoff berth to four.

Jared Coreau (12-17-9) stopped eight of 12 shots for San Antonio (27-32-6-1) before Evan Fitzpatrick relieved him at the beginning of the third period.

Wolves Hockey player #18 TJ Tynan from Orland Park on the ice at the Allstate Arena. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania.

McGinn scored just 64 seconds into the game to set the tone for the night. Forward Tyler Wong won a battle in the Rampage zone and threw a pass up to defenseman Jake Bischoff on the left side. Bischoff sent a shot in and McGinn redirected it past Coreau.

Kolesar doubled the lead at 13:27, scoring his second goal in as many games after he was left alone in front of the San Antonio net. Defenseman Griffin Reinhart slotted a pass to Kolesar and the forward spun before potting his 16th of the season.

The intermission didn’t slow the Wolves’ momentum as Weis capitalized on a turnover in the Wolves zone that turned into a 3-on-1 breakout. He raced to the edge of the crease and tipped a shot from Bischoff at the 1:56 mark.

Hague struck another blow at 19:57, skating in and placing a backhand over Coreau. Hyka scored the dagger 7:17 into the third period. Hyka send a centering pass into the slot, but it hit Rampage defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon and redirected past Fitzpatrick to seal the 5-0 blanking.

The Wolves stay in San Antonio to face the Rampage at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Chicago returns to Allstate Arena at 7 p.m. Saturday for Salute to Military Families Night against the Milwaukee Admirals. To find ticket specials, visit ChicagoWolves.com or call 1-800-THE-WOLVES.

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

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