Wolves waste two-goal lead, lose to Rampage in shootout
By seth gruen For Sun-Times Media February 18, 2013 12:17AM
Updated: March 19, 2013 6:42AM
Ordinarily, the Wolves might be disappointed about allowing a lead to slip away.
But considering the injuries they’ve dealt with and the number of games they’ve played recently, the Wolves were happy to walk away with a 5-4 shootout loss Sunday to the San Antonio Rampage at Allstate Arena.
‘‘That was two teams kind of mentally and physical worn down,’’ Wolves coach Scott Arniel said. ‘‘Those are little mental things that happen [when teams are tired]. It gets into a shootout and becomes a little bit of a skills contest.’’
The Wolves, who were playing their third game in four days, were in control for most of the first two periods. Facing a team that was playing its third game in as many days, the Wolves came out aggressively and looked to be outskating the Rampage early on. But they would blow a two-goal lead.
Mike Davies’ power-play goal at 9:58 of the second period put the Wolves up 4-2, but Scott Timmons scored late in the second to pull the Rampage to 4-3. The Wolves then started the third period lackadaisically, and the Rampage tied the score at 4-4 on a goal by Jared Gomes at 3:24. That’s the way it
remained until the shootout.
The Wolves dressed only 11 forward because of injuries to Brett Sterling and Andrew Gordon, forcing some players to play double shifts. Davies, in particular, stepped up. He scored for the second consecutive game and added an assist.
Stefan Schneider, Nathan Longpre and Devin DiDiomete also scored for the Wolves (24-16-4-3).
‘‘There were signs of fatigue, but just like they had three [games] in three [days], we had three in four,’’ Longpre said. ‘‘We both played as many minutes as each other, so there’s no problem we should have.’’
