Wolves and Ads work a little overtime

AHL

Utica Comets 1 Chicago Wolves 2

– Coming off of back to back to back defeats in Cleveland, the Wolves got things back on track against the visiting Utica Comets with a 2-1 overtime win at the Allstate Arena.

Shane Harper stepped up as the hero with his game winner 4:10 into the overtime period.

Teams were scoreless entering the final period as Matt Climie for the Wolves and Joacim Andersson of the Comets turned aside everything.

Alexandre Grenier fired the only shot that would beat Climie 5:25 into the third while Andersson carried his goose egg to within 4:46 of the final buzzer before the Wolves’ Terry Broadhurst finally found a way past him.  The Wolves held a 33-27 shots advantage overall and there were only 10 minutes in penalties in this one either — none through the third and overtime segments.

Milwaukee Admirals 2 Oklahoma Barons 3

– After grabbing an overtime win on the weekend, the Ads came up short in a 3-2 overtime defeat at San Antonio — the team’s second game and second defeat in 24 hours.

Jesse Blacker beat Marek Mazanek in goal for the Admirals just 18 seconds into the overtime segment to lift the host Barons to the win while the Admirals managed to salvage a single point in the second game of a six game road stretch.

Teams played through a scoreless opening frame, then traded single goals in both the second and third to set up the extra period. Mark Van Guilder notched the second period marker for the Ads and Austin Watson buried his 20th of the season in the third.

The Admirals will stay in Texas for back to back games Saturday and Sunday in Cedar Park against the Texas Stars.

Lake Erie Monsters 4 Texas Stars 6

– A pair of goals about four minutes apart made things interesting in the third period as the Monsters tried to rally back from a 5-2 deficit but an empty netter just 16 seconds away from the final buzzer officially ended their shot at continuing a two game win streak.

The Monsters wrapped up an eight game homestand on the weekend with back to back wins against the Wolves and a 3-4-1 record overall, but got a five game road run that will see the team travel from Texas to Toronto starting on a rough note with the loss.

Stars led 2-0 after a period but defenseman Ben Youds cut that lead in half with his goal just 30 seconds into the middle frame on a Monster powerplay.  Sam Henley also scored in the second, but the host Stars were still up by a pair, 4-2 heading to the third.

Ben Street had his team’s third goal with his powerplay marker with 8:27 to go and Reid Petryk got his team within a goal with his unassisted effort 4:14 later.

The Monsters will stay in the Lone Star State with back to back games at San Antonio Friday and Saturday, then return to play the Stars on March 17 before the long trek to Toronto to wrap up the trip on March 20.

ECHL

The ECHL was busy with seven games on Wednesday night — three of them involving Midwest teams.

Fort Wayne Komets 4 Kalamazoo Wings 8

The Komets wrapped up a seven-game homestand on the weekend with a 3-0 win over the Wings, but in Kalamazoo Wednesday the host Wings won a mismatch.

Kaleigh Schrock got the Komets off to a nice start with his goal just 2:27 into the game and the visitors responded to every Wings goal by moving back in front until Drew Daniels gave them a 4-3 edge 6:56 into the middle period.

The other two Komets goals came from Christian Ouellet and Cody Sol.  Michael Neal notched his 15th of the season with a shorthanded effort near the midway mark of the second period to tie the contest for a fourth time and begin a string of five straight unanswered goals for the home side.

The Wings were up 6-4 by the end of the second and added two more in the third for insurance.

Along with Neal’s goal, the Wings got three from Matt Caria and singles from Jean Bourbeau, Dane Fox, Ludwig Blomstrand and Gergo Nagy.

For the Wings, the win wrapped up back to back wins on home ice as they bounced back from Friday’s loss at Fort Wayne with a 5-3 edge against Indy on Sunday.

The Wings will begin a three game weekend getaway Friday at Wheeling and finish it off with Saturday and Sunday games at Reading.

The Komets return home to play Toledo on Friday.

Orlando Solar Bears 0 Toledo Walleye 1 (so)

The Walleye and Solar Bears were involved in a rare match Wednesday as both goaltenders played through 65 minutes without allowing a goal.

Neil Conway in goal for the Walleye handled all of the 34 shots he faced and Maxime Clermont was unbeaten with 26 saves in goal for the Solar Bears.

Patrick Watling was the lone Solar Bears shooter to beat Conway on the night in the third of five shootout rounds. That tied the shootout briefly as Shane Berschbach notched one in the first round for the Walleye. Tyler Barnes responded immediately with a third round goal as well and that stood up as the game winning marker.

The Walleye will be back in action Friday night, making the trip to Fort Wayne.

Missouri Mavericks 2 Quad City Mallards 3 (ot)

A Central Division match at the i Wireless Center in Moline saw the host Mallards pull out the edge with a goal from Nicholas Rioux on a powerplay 3:25 into an extra frame.

The Mallards doubled the shot total of the visiting Mavericks 32-16, but were turned away continuously down the stretch by Josh Robinson in goal for the Mavs. While the overall shots total was drastic it comes primarily from a 10-3 edge in the opening period for the Mallards who opened up a 1-0 lead with a goal from Logan Nelson.

Kain Allicock tied it up with his first professional goal, nine games into his career with the Mavericks just past the halfway mark of the second, but the Mallards carried the lead out of the frame again with another debut –Mason Baptista scoring in his first game with the Ducks with 2:44 to go in the period.

Andrew Courtney notched his 26th of the year with 5:33 to go, pulling the Mavericks even and setting the stage for Rioux’s overtime winner.

The Mallards evened up its record in the fifth game of an eight-game homestand with the win. The Mavericks are 2-2-0-1 in that stretch and will continue at home against Wichita Saturday, Missouri again on Sunday and finally, Tulsa next Wednesday.

The Mavericks have now dropped three games in a row after being swept at home by the Rapid City Rush and they return home Friday to play Brampton.