The Admirals celebrate after scoring the game winning goal.

Most hockey games end in the three period regulation, tonight’s game took five periods to decide. Both teams were tied at two as the third period began.

The Wolves and Admirals were shooting at will in the final period but to no avail for the majority of it. The Wolves finally scored at the 16:31 mark when Zack Kassian rebounded a deflected shot from Guillaume Desbiens and turned it into his fifth goal of the season.

The Wolves lead 2-1 at that point. Then in the final two minutes, the Admirals would tie this game. Center Austin Watson scored his second goal of the game and won the player of the game award in the process.

The Wolves were unable to score before the end of regulation despite some desperate shot attempts in the final seconds of the third period.

In overtime it was a battle of the goaltenders as Wolves goalie Eddie Lock stopped both Admirals shots. The Wolves attempted a handful of shots on their end but couldn’t get close enough to the Admirals net.

The first shootout ended in a 1-1 tie with both goals courtesy of Zack Kassian for the Wolves and Austin Watson for the Admirals. Had Watson’s goal been scored in either the third period or overtime, it would have counted as a hat trick.

After five frames and the winner still  undecided, both teams needed a one shot only second shootout to finally bring this game to a close. Anton Rodin failed to score for the Wolves. The Admirals would then put their hopes on the shoulders of defenseman Johnathan Blum.

Blum scored on what seemed like a missed shot, but the referees ruled that the puck had went into the net before bouncing back out off of the crossbar.

The Wolves did not question the officials judgement therefore the call was not reviewed. The Admirals break their four game losing streak by winning the shootout 2-1 and winning the game by the final score of 3-2.

The Wolves have now lost two in a row, with the worst part being that these were division games. The Wolves record now stands at 8-6-2-1. They drop down to third place in the Midwest Division behind both Grand Rapids and the arch-rival Rockford Ice Hogs.

Speaking of those Ice Hogs, the Wolves will meet them next Wednesday night after taking a few days off. The game will be here at the Allstate Arena with the puck dropping just after 7pm.

Here is the box score from tonight’s game: http://theahl.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=1010112

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On a side note: This week the NHL Lockout has forced the cancellation of the 2013 NHL All-Star game. There is no agreement in sight and no meetings are scheduled. With the way this lockout is going, we could see the first full season cancellation since the 2004-2005 NHL Lockout.

This could also be the second full season to be cancelled under current NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

 

With no end in sight to the NHL lockout, the Blackhawks are still on stand-by {for now}. As a result, the Chicago Wolves are the only hockey in town.

Tonight the Wolves will try to defend their home ice here at the Allstate Arena against their one of their arch-rivals, the Milwaukee Admirals.

This rivalry is known as the “Amtrak Rivalry” which the Wolves lead this series 24-16-2-2 all-time. That includes a .500 record against the Admirals this season.

This will be the third meeting between these two teams for 2012-2013. Milwaukee won game one back on November 9th by the score of 7-4. The Wolves got payback just last week with a 5-3 victory.

The Wolves will be playing with some anger tonight as they come off of a road loss in Grand Rapids last night. It was a nail biter til the end, with the Griffins pulling off the 4-3 victory.

Chicago’s record currently sits at 8-6-2-0 which puts them in second place in the AHL’s Midwest Division. The Admirals are currently fifth in the same division with a record of 6-8-1-1.

Milwaukee is licking their own wounds as they are 0-2-1-1 in their last four games. It should be a hell of a contest tonight as both teams look to get back into the win column.

The Wolves are looking to keep up their momentum against Milwaukee, while the Admirals are desperate to break their losing streak.

You can follow me during the game on Twitter @GabeSalgado82 #Q101Sports