Chicago won a special-teams battle in Game 1, allowing them to take a 1-0 series lead into tonight’s Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals in Colorado (8:05 ET, 
).
All five goals in the Wolves’ 3-2 victory on Thursday were scored on the power play, but Chicago got two successful penalty kills in the third period to secure the win and hand the Eagles their first home loss this postseason (6-1).
Chicago was 3-for-5 on the power play against a Colorado team that had killed off 20 of 21 chances in their series against San Diego, Henderson and Coachella Valley. Justin Robidas (4-4-8), Bradly Nadeau (2-7-9) and Noel Gunler (2-1-3) scored for the Wolves and Ryan Suzuki (4-6-10) notched a pair of assists as Chicago earned its sixth one-goal win of the playoffs.
“We know our strengths against this team,” Gunler said. “We’re going to stick to our game and hopefully it can go our way.”
Cayden Primeau (7-3, 2.28, .927) made 35 saves for the Wolves. Primeau is in the Calder Cup conference finals for the third time in five seasons after helping Laval get there in 2022 and 2025.
“It was a tight game five-on-five,” Primeau said after Game 1. “Next game we’ve got to clean up some special teams, be disciplined and not give them too much opportunity.”
Alex Barré-Boulet (4-5-9) and Tristen Nielsen (7-3-10) had the goals for the Eagles, who went 2-for-7 with the man advantage. After posting shutouts in each of the Eagles’ three previous Game 1’s this postseason, Trent Miner (8-3, 1.42, .940) stopped 15 shots on Thursday.
“I liked our start, I liked our energy,” Eagles head coach Mark Letestu told Brennan Vogt of Hockey Mountain High. “We weren’t as sharp execution-wise; the crispness probably wasn’t there (after) a little bit of a layoff. They’ve got a dangerous power play that’s feeling it, and they made one more play on the power play than we did.”
First Team AHL All-Star defenseman Jack Ahcan returned to the Colorado lineup after seeing action in three Stanley Cup Playoff games with the parent Avalanche, and he assisted on both Eagles goals in Game 1.
“I thought he was a little rusty. He hasn’t played in a while,” Letestu admitted. “When he does play up there (in the NHL), he doesn’t play the kind of minutes he plays here. The amount that we’re putting him on the ice, there’s an acclimation period to it.
“Like a lot of guys on our team – I feel like we’ll be all right in Game 2.”
Colorado needs a win tonight to avoid going down 0-2 before the series heads to Chicago. Only eight teams in AHL history have won a best-of-seven series after losing the first two games on home ice.