On to Game 7, Wolves still have work to do | TheAHL.com

Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer

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Missing their goaltending ace. Facing elimination. Going down two goals in the first period.

The end looked near for the Chicago Wolves on Sunday night in Game 6 of the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals against the Colorado Eagles.

Chicago had already witnessed just how dangerous the Eagles can be, how quickly they can swing a game. The Eagles took two of three games at Allstate Arena. Game 5 on Friday had been particularly gruesome for the Wolves. Colorado struck three times in a 2:58 span, including once shorthanded. That shorthander came on a 2-on-0 breakaway. The next Colorado goal came on a breakaway as well.

That ace in net throughout the Calder Cup Playoffs, Cayden Primeau, did not start the third period of Game 5. Instead it was Amir Miftakhov, who had not played so much as a minute in net since April 18. Primeau had taken all 14 starts since the beginning of Chicago’s run past the Texas Stars and Grand Rapids Griffins and into this series with Colorado. Primeau eventually returned to the game Friday, but it ended with a 7-3 Colorado victory and the Wolves facing elimination for the second time this postseason.

After a travel day to Colorado, Miftakhov led the Wolves on to the ice for Game 6. His back-up, Ruslan Khazheyev, had seen even less AHL action this season – one appearance on Nov. 9. Primeau, who has gone to a conference final three times in five seasons, was scratched from the lineup.

Colorado jumped early and pumped three shots on Miftakhov in the opening 76 seconds. The hosts broke through on a Jack Ahcan power-play goal at 6:09. Another goal to close out the period in the final minute came from Eagles forward Valtteri Puustinen.

But then Juuso Välimäki responded on a Chicago power play early in the second period. The game held at a 2-1 Colorado lead well into the third period before Joel Nyström evened the score. Then it was Ronan Seeley’s first goal this postseason that put the Wolves ahead with 4:14 to go in regulation.

The Wolves might do this. However, Colorado put together one final push with goaltender Trent Miner off for a sixth attacker. Miftakhov faced five shots in the final 1:57 of the game, and all of them came from some of Colorado’s most dangerous performers: two from Ahcan, plus one apiece from T.J. Hughes, T.J. Tynan, and Tristen Nielsen.

When that barrage finished, Miftakhov had a 36-save performance, and the Wolves remained very much alive with their Game 6 victory.

Now they just have to do it all again in tonight’s Game 7 inside that same Blue Federal Credit Union Arena. A trip to the Calder Cup Finals to face the Toronto Marlies is on the line. With the parent Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Final, the organization has a chance to become the first to win the Stanley Cup and Calder Cup in the same year since the New Jersey Devils-Albany River Rats union did so 31 years ago.

But that would-be piece of history is for later. Maybe.

The Wolves still have some work to do.