The Checkers broke through midway through the first with a power-play strike from Zach Boychuk, then pumped in two more late in the second to build up a 3-0 lead heading into the final frame.
But the Wolves, who have struggled mightily on the road this season, wouldn’t roll over, with Danny Kristo almost singlehandedly bringing the visitors back. He kickstarted the rally in the first minute of the third, with Jordan Caron capping off a tic-tac-toe play to get the Wolves on the board. Kristo found the back of the net himself a few minutes later to pull Chicago within one. The Wolves kept pressing and finally broke through with the equalizer with five seconds left in regulation when Kristo struck again, this time hammering home a rebound on the left side of the net to force overtime.
Tonight marked the just the second time this season that the Checkers failed to earn two points in a game where they held a lead at either intermission. They seemingly dominated the first two frames, but let the visitors force their way back in late.
“As near as I can tell, guys just wanted it to be easy,” said Checkers head coach Mark Morris. “Credit [Chicago] for a hard push. As soon as they changed goalies they looked like a different team.
“I thought that they hemmed us in for much of the third period and obviously they got a real fortunate bounce where the puck went right on their tape and we could have had a W, but we lost a point. That was a game that we should have won.”
The tide turned after the Wolves’ first goal, with the Checkers only registering six shots in the third.
“It was a bad period for us,” said T.J. Hensick, who scored the Checkers’ third goal. “We haven’t had too many bad periods lately, but that one for sure was one of the worst.”
The Checkers have been lights out in overtime and shootouts thus far this season, but tonight was not their night, as they failed to convert on several big opportunities.
“We had chances in overtime to win it,” said Hensick. “We had a power play and then we had a shootout. We’re usually pretty good in the shootout, but it was a tough 20 minutes there that cost us the game.”
The Checkers will again face a hungry Wolves team tomorrow night for a rematch. The key for Morris is to shake off the end of this game and emulate their early success.
“We’ve got to have a good response,” said Morris. “I loved our first period. It might have been the best period of hockey we’ve played this year. Second period, just too many soft penalties that we took. A lot of reaching and that took us off our game. Third period we were on our heels the whole time. We didn’t play with confidence, and credit them with a real strong effort. They got rewarded in the shootout.”
“Every team in this league is good,” said Hensick. “No matter if it’s 1-0, 2-0 or 3-0, teams are going to keep fighting. We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing to get to that point. It’s something uncharacteristic of this team in the last 20 games all season really.
“Tomorrow night is a new night and hopefully we can bounce back with the win and get going in the right direction again.”