DES MOINES, Iowa — Rookie center Ben Jones’ first professional goal was the game-winner in the Wolves’ 4-3 victory against the Iowa Wild on Sunday night at Wells Fargo Arena.
Forwards Curtis McKenzie, Reid Duke and Lucas Elvenes also scored for the Wolves (8-9-1-0), who snapped a four-game skid and avenged a home loss to Iowa on Saturday night.
The Wolves earned the win in their 1,000th regular-season road game with an engaged effort from start to finish.
McKenzie gave the Wolves a 1-0 lead 5:08 into the game. With the Wolves on the penalty kill, McKenzie extended his stick to break up a pass and trigger a 2-on-1 rush. Patrick Brown fed McKenzie in the slot and he deked a chip past Iowa goaltender Mat Robson for the Wolves’ second short-handed goal of the season.
Gerald Mayhew, Iowa’s leading scorer, made it 1-1 at 8:53 of the second period as he took advantage of Wolves center Reid Duke falling near the Wolves goal. Mayhew skated away from Duke, pounced on the rebound of a J.T. Brown shot and knocked it home.
Just 1:11 later, Kyle Rau collected a Connor Dewar pass just outside the crease and flipped a backhand past Wolves goaltender Oscar Dansk to give the Wild a 2-1 edge.
Iowa (9-4-2-1) had a chance to build on its lead, but the Wolves killed a penalty and then Elvenes swiped a puck in the offensive zone and spied Duke behind him in the left circle. Duke whistled a wrister past Robson to make it 2-2 at 13:51 of the second.
The Wolves regained a 3-2 lead at 17:11 when Gage Quinney led a rush on the power play and found Elvenes flying down the right wing. Elvenes dangled past a defenseman to get to the crease and wrapped the puck around Robson while getting knocked down.
Iowa forged a 3-3 tie with 11:44 remaining when Dewar controlled a teammate’s shot outside the crease and lobbed a backhand through a sliver of open space for his first professional goal.
Jones responded quickly for the Wolves. He set up in the deep slot, accepted a pass from defenseman Jake Bischoff and blasted a slap shot past a screened Robson. His game-winner came at 9:45 of the third.
Dansk (3-4-0) rejected 31 shots to earn the win while Robson (2-2-3) had 19 saves.
The Wolves return to Allstate Arena at 7 p.m. Tuesday to face the San Antonio Rampage in their 1,000th regular-season home game.
NOTE: The Wolves added some reinforcements before the game when forwards Brandon Pirri and Nicolas Roy were assigned to the team from the Golden Knights, but they weren’t able to get to Des Moines in time to play. Pirri is a familiar face, having scored 94 points in 86 games for the Wolves during the last two seasons. Pirri had one assist in 11 games for the Golden Knights this season before relegated. Roy had one goal and two assists in six games for the Golden Knights.
Sun-Times wires
