ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Chicago Wolves walked away from Friday’s 1-goal loss at Utica irked by what they categorized as unfortunate bounces and unfavorable officiating.
The Wolves wasted no time taking all variables out of Saturday’s game at Rochester with four goals in the first 10 minutes, 18 seconds to set the tone for a 7-4 win against the Americans at Blue Cross Arena.
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Defenseman Mathieu Brodeur and forward Ty Rattie split the four early goals for Chicago (10-3-2-0), which improved its road-trip record to 5-2.
The 21-year-old Rattie added a goal with 2:56 left in the second period to wrap up his first hat trick as a pro. Rattie moved his season total to 10 goals to vault to the top of the American Hockey League‘s leaderboard.
Brodeur, a defensive-minded defenseman who has never scored more than three goals in a season, produced 2 goals for the first time in his 243 games as a pro. Forwards Dmitrij Jaskin and Yannick Veilleux contributed second-period goals to give the Wolves a 7-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Despite giving up three goals in the third period, Wolves rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington (5-1-1) secured 27 saves to extend his winning streak to five games.
Rochester (7-8-0-0) scored three goals in the third period to shift the loss from starting goaltenderNathan Lieuwen, who was yanked with 9:09 gone in the game after he surrendered three goals in five shots, to Andrey Makarov (4-4-0). Lieuwen returned at the start of the third period and finished with nine saves.