The Wolves saw a slew of positive streaks snapped in Wednesday night’s loss to Manitoba–including a five-game winning streak and goalkeeper Wendell Young’s 16 consecutive victories.
But the Wolves didn’t waste any time getting back on track, earning a hard-fought 2-1 comeback victory over the Long Beach Ice Dogs before a season-high crowd of 16,301 Saturday night at the Rosemont Horizon.
Ravil Gusmanov’s 18th goal of the season broke a 1-1 tie with just over 3 minutes left in the second period. Gusmanov, all alone in the right slot, beat Long Beach goalie Mike Buzak.
Young stopped 31 shots, including 12 in the final period, to help the Wolves (31-9-2) increase their IHL-best point total to 64.
“I think that is the sign of a good team,” said John Anderson of his team’s come-from behind effort. “We’ve got some experience here. We know if we get scored on first, there is still lots of time left.”
Long Beach (25-14-6) took a 1-0 lead early in the second period when Andrei Vasilyev corraled a loose puck and blasted it past Young. But Steve Maltais took advantage of a Long Beach hooking penalty 3 minutes later, muscling in his own rebound to tie the game at 1-1. It was Maltais’ team-high 25th goal and 17th on the power play–tops in the IHL.
“(Maltais) knows where to go,” Anderson said. “He is really effective and knows where to go. He has those qualities to score power-play goals.”
Long Beach had several chances to tie the game in the waning minutes. But Young, who improved his record to 24-4-2, turned away a flurry of Ice Dogs attempts.
“It was like a playoff game,” said Anderson. “It was high-intensity.”
