Wolves coach John Anderson will try, but he might have a hard time convincing his team that the rest of the quarterfinal series between his Wolves and the Iowa Stars will be as easy as Wednesday night’s opener.
But unless Iowa starts resembling a postseason team — let alone one that won a playoff series — the Wolves indeed might have an easy time in the next week or so.
Two goals in the first 63 seconds set the table for a 7-0 rout for the Atlanta Thrashers farmhands over the Dallas Stars’ American Hockey League affiliate before an announced crowd of 2,408 at Allstate Arena.
“[Overconfidence] is something that is going to be in the back our minds,” said Wolves winger Jordan LaVallee, who had two goals. “We know that’s not the best [Iowa] can bring.”
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Friday night at Allstate Arena. The middle three games of the series will be in Iowa.
After sweeping the Milwaukee Admirals in the first round, the Wolves are the only team in the AHL’s Calder Cup playoffs yet to lose in the postseason. Iowa, the fourth seed in the divisional playoff format, upset top-seeded Omaha in six games in the first round.
Wednesday night, however, Iowa looked like a team that caught lightning in a bottle but has come back to Earth.
“Our tenacity was good,” Anderson said. “We got to loose pucks first.”
The Wolves took advantage of defensive breakdowns and horrific goaltending to lead 3-0 after one period and 5-0 after two.
Niko Dimitrakos started the onslaught 43 seconds into the game when he took a pass from Colin Stuart and came right down the middle of the slot unmolested. Dimitrakos slipped a shot between the legs of Dan Ellis to begin a very rough night for the goaltender.
Ellis led the Stars to a first-round victory, posting a 2.09 goals-against average and .913 save percentage. But he never reacted when Stuart flipped a shot toward the net that went through his legs 20 seconds later to give the Wolves a 2-0 lead.
“That was huge,” Anderson said. “We caught them on their heels a little bit.”
LaVallee scored the first of his two goals in the final minute of the first period, beating Ellis to the short side from just inside the faceoff circle.
Michael Garnett made 28 saves for his first shutout of the playoffs.
———–
rfoltman@tribune.com
