Two planes carrying precious Wolves cargo touched down in Tucson, Arizona, on Monday.
The one that arrived from O’Hare Airport toted the coaches, equipment and Wolves players who built a three-game winning streak last week at Allstate Arena.
The one that arrived from Las Vegas carried four players — defensemen Nic Hague and Jake Bischoff, center Nicolas Roy and goaltender Garret Sparks — loaned to the Wolves by the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights.
Their mission? Come together to challenge a Tucson Roadrunners team that brought a five-game winning streak into the game Tuesday night at the Tucson Convention Center.
Mission accomplished as Dylan Coghlan and Reid Duke scored their first goals of the season and Oscar Dansk made 29 saves to give the Wolves (5-3-1-0) a 2-1 victory.
The win was another step for a Wolves squad that wants to replicate last season’s run to the Calder Cup Finals, but coach Rocky Thompson recognizes it’s going to take more time to come together than it did for that veteran-laden team.
One area that’s already championship-worthy: The Wolves’ penalty-kill unit entered Tuesday with 21 consecutive successful kills.
“It’s just a process,” Thompson said. “[Saturday], we were a little bit better than the last game. Our special teams took a step in the right direction. Our penalty kill has been really good, but I really liked how our power play looked. I thought we generated a lot of opportunities. That has been a work in progress for us. And we’ve been slowly getting better at it.
“I think our play without the puck is slowly getting better, too, and we’re starting to minimize chances against. We can continue to improve on that. I’m looking forward to our game up-ice improving, too. We want to funnel more pucks to the net. We want our shot totals to come up. But, again, it’s little by little, piece by piece.”
The Wolves’ progress will be accelerated as they continue to add pieces from last year’s team. Hague (eight games, two assists) and Bischoff (four games) have made their NHL debuts this year after being stalwarts on the Wolves’ blue line last season.
Defenseman Zach Whitecloud was Hague’s partner last season and wound up leading the AHL with a plus-39 rating. He suffered an upper-body injury during a Golden Knights exhibition game Sept. 25, so he didn’t make his season debut until the Wolves’ 4-0 win over the Manitoba Moose on Saturday.
“I think he made a big difference in our game,” Thompson said. “We didn’t have to defend long when he was on the ice. When he went back to break out a puck, we were able to execute and make the next play and exit our zone so we didn’t get hemmed in a lot.”
“That’s the first time I’ve ever had to sit out with an injury, so it was a learning process,” Whitecloud said. “To come back and have an impact right away, that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to contribute positively to what we’re doing here. It was a good feeling to get back out there and have fun.”
