Danny Kristo, Wolves off to strong start

The Wolves are off to their best start since the 2007-08 season. They hope this season ends like that one.

With their 4-3 overtime win Sunday in San Antonio, the Wolves moved to 7-1-0-1. That’s the second best start in franchise history, bested only by the 2007-08 team that began 8-0-1-0 and eventually won the Calder Cup, the Wolves’ last league title.

They can thank forward Danny Kristo for their last two wins, after he scored in overtime to end both Friday’s and Sunday’s 4-3 victories over San Antonio. His goal came 3:26 into Friday’s extra session, and he needed only 53 seconds to end Sunday’s game.

The Wolves play thursday and Friday in Winnipeg against Manitoba.

Third place

Midfielder Matt Polster’s debut season was a bright spot during one of the dreariest years in Fire history. It just wasn’t good enough to be named the top rookie in MLS.

On Tuesday, Orlando City forward Cyle Larin won the rookie of the year award. Larin scored 17 goals in 27 appearances and ran away with the voting by teams, players and media, finishing with a weighted total of 275.95 points. San Jose’s Fatai Alashe came in second with 6.75 points, and Polster was third at 3.47.

No Chicago?

Over the past year, Chicago has hosted two of USA Rugby’s biggest events. Last November, the All Blacks routed the USA Eagles at a sold-out Soldier Field. Then this September, Australia’s Wallabies beat the Eagles to bring the combined crowd at the two matches to over 80,000.

Despite that, it doesn’t look like Chicago will get one of the six franchises in the Professional Rugby Organization that’s planning to begin playing in April. According to a release Monday, PRO will have teams in “the Northeast, the Rocky Mountains and California.”