Sleep-deprived or not, the Wolves had no choice but to get ready for Sunday’s game against the Milwaukee Admirals.
Following a five-hour bus ride from Des Moines after beating the Iowa Wild on Saturday night, the Wolves got back to their Hoffman Estates practice rink around 3:30 am. They presumably got to sleep by 4 or 4:30, and reported to Allstate Arena for a 3:10 pm faceoff with the division-leading Admirals.
Wolves coach Rocky Thompson had a message for his players before the game. Prepare correctly and approach the matchup in the right way, and their bodies would respond.
“It’s just mental in my opinion,” Thompson said. “You prepare. You’re focused, and you don’t have any excuses. There’s no excuses for me in the game. You do the best that you can and you prepare properly and your head’s in the right place.”
Thompson got the response he wanted. And despite the turnaround, the Wolves almost picked up two points but lost 3-2 in a shootout.
“It’s a very good point,” said Brandon Pirri, whose third-period goal sent the game to overtime. “(Milwaukee) is a first-place team, got a point. The schedule is not ideal. That’s not a secret. But we gutted it out, got three out of four (points) on a tough weekend. It’s pretty good.”
The weekend was tough for many reasons. It was also a successful one.
On Saturday, the Wolves beat second-place Iowa 4-3 despite starting with just 17 skaters and finishing with 16. Keegan Kolesar was recalled to the Vegas Golden Knights, and Jake Bischoff and Tyrell Goulbourne missed out due to illness. Reid Duke then left with an injury, but the Wolves still managed to beat the Wild thanks to Paul Cotter’s third-period score.
A day later, Kolesar was back. But the Wolves were without Duke and Bischoff and also didn’t have Gage Quinney (lower body), not to mention much sleep.
But the performance and strong weekend were encouraging for Pirri, who said he didn’t get home until 4 am.
“Ever since I’ve been here, we’re trending in the right direction,” Pirri said. “It’s going well. What did we have, (28) shots and we slept four hours. At the beginning of the year, the guys were telling me to get 20 was a good night. We’re working the system. Guys are getting more confident. It shows on all four lines.”
Thompson echoed that. He liked how the Wolves played both games and was happy with three points out of four.
“I felt like we could’ve gotten more at the end of the day,” Thompson said. “I thought our guys competed really hard and they executed well. It’s a good sign for us. It’s continuing with our progression.”
Valentin Zykov also scored for the Wolves, and Garret Sparks stopped 21 shots.
NOTE: Sunday was the Wolves’ final home game of the 2010s. They went 222-117-22-23 at Allstate Arena, and won 20 playoff games in Rosemont.
Ty Rattie (42) led Wolves scorers in home goals, followed by Darren Haydar (40) and Brett Sterling (31). Matt Climie (36) led goalies in home wins, and Jordan Binnington (32) was second.
