Before the Wolves’ 5-1 loss Saturday night to the Iowa Wild at Allstate Arena, coach Rocky Thompson noted how quickly the season is going by. That he’d be reflective makes sense considering the game Sunday at Rockford marks the halfway point of the Wolves’ season.
Thompson appraised his team’s progress after 38 games of ups and downs.
“I like where our game’s at right now,” Thompson said. “We’ve just got to continue to move forward and get a little bit better.”
The game Saturday made it clear the Wolves’ special teams must improve.
Former Blackhawks forward Luke Johnson scored two power-play goals for the Wild, and the Wolves’ power play was 0-for-6. The unit entered the game ranked 15th in the 31-team AHL at 17.9 percent.
“It’s frustrating. We work a lot on it. We’ve just got to execute,” said forward Tye McGinn, who scored the Wolves’ lone goal. “It’s simple as that. We had our looks. We had our plays that we made, and we just couldn’t finish them. That happens, but we’ve just got to forget about it right now and look at some video and come back ready to go tomorrow.”
Thompson echoed that.
“We did a lot of good things, for sure, but the power play’s got to be better,” he said. “It hasn’t been great in the last five games. There’s no excuse. We’ve got guys who played in the NHL on power plays that should be able to do it here. It’s on them. They’ve got to buckle down, and they’ve got to make it happen.”
The Wild (20-12-2-2, 44 points), meanwhile, have nine power-play goals in their last three games. The victory over the Wolves was the seventh in their last eight games.
The special teams undid a decent effort at even strength for the Wolves, who outshot the Wild 33-21. But the Wild took a 1-0 lead on Johnson’s first power-play goal with 4:32 left in the opening period. Gerald Mayhew doubled their lead 15 seconds later.
“I thought we had a good start,” McGinn said. “Came out on fire, and then they got that power-play goal [and] we kind of lost focus for about 20 seconds and they potted two real quick.”
Thompson also liked the Wolves’ start. They didn’t get a ton of clear opportunities but controlled the puck and drove play. Johnson and Mayhew changed the momentum.
The Wolves’ subsequent struggles on the power play didn’t help. To compound the special-teams issue, the Wolves (16-17-3-1, 36 points) were only short-handed twice, but the Wild’s surging power play scored both times.
“Our power play got tons of opportunity to get us back into the game, and that’s really what was the difference tonight,” Thompson said. “[Iowa’s] power play’s feeling it. They’re executing really well. You tip your hat to them. Those are two good plays that they executed.
“With us, I’m disappointed in our power play. I didn’t think we were competing on it, especially early.”
