Wolves lose Game 3 of Calder Cup Finals to Checkers

Checkers lead Chicago Wolves in Calder Cup Championship finals 2 to 1

The Chicago Wolves surrendered two special-teams goals in Game 3 of the Calder Cup Finals to fall 4-1 to the Charlotte Checkers on Wednesday night at Allstate Arena.

Forward Brooks Macek scored the lone goal for Chicago (12-8) while netminder Oscar Dansk (10-7) stopped 22 shots.

Julien Gauthier, Jake Bean, Patrick Brown and Martin Necas scored goals for Charlotte (13-4) while goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic (9-4) recorded a postseason-high 38 saves to give the Checkers a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Wolves Hockey. Photo courses of the Wolves

“I thought we gave ourselves an opportunity to win tonight with how we played,” said Wolves head coach Rocky Thompson. “We just ran into a really good goaltender.”

The Checkers got on the board early in the first when Gauthier threaded a shot through traffic at 1:51, and the Wolves were unable to even the score after 20 minutes despite outshooting Charlotte 15-6 in the frame.

Bean struck 2:16 into the middle period on the Checkers power play, sending the eventual game-winning wrist shot in from the blue line to make it 2-0, before Brown tallied an unassisted shorthanded goal at 11:46 to make it a three-goal advantage.

Macek cut into the lead at the 14:49 mark of the third period, pushing a rebound from defenseman Zach Whitecloud’s shot past Nedeljkovic to spoil the goaltender’s shutout bid.

The Wolves used the momentum and made a furious offensive push late in the third, but Necas responded at 16:55 with an empty-net tally to put the game out of reach for Chicago.

The Wolves and Checkers meet for Game 4 at 7 p.m. Thursday at Allstate Arena with Game 5 Saturday night. To secure the best tickets, visit ChicagoWolves.com or call 1-800-THE-WOLVES.

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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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