Chicago Wolves rally before losing in overtime to Manitoba

Wolves coach Rocky Thompson has embraced the challenges he has faced this season.

“It’s good. It makes you better as a coach,” Thompson said. “I feel like I’m a teacher, and we’ve been teaching since the start of the year. Our job gets tested to try to do the best job that we can without overwhelming young players, but getting them to transition as quickly as possible while still trying to have success.”

The Wolves didn’t get two points Saturday, losing to the Manitoba Moose 3-2 in overtime. Playing their third game in four days, the Wolves fell behind 2-0 and lost for the fifth time in six games.

Emile Poirier and Jimmy Oligny gave Manitoba a 2-0 lead before the Wolves came back to tie it on goals by Curtis McKenzie and Jimmy Schuldt. But Jonathan Kovacevic scored 18 seconds into overtime to win it for the Moose.

Schuldt, however, didn’t think the result wiped out the positives he saw from the Wolves (9-14-2-0, 20 points).

“At the end of the day, I think our battle level and our compete was there tonight,” Schuldt said. “It’s huge for us to get one point out of that and to show resiliency.”

One of the biggest challenges Thompson has faced this season is dealing with a young and inexperienced team. But he thinks adversity makes players better, and the same goes for coaches.

“It’s always about building a team and leadership and continuing to press forward and always getting better,” Thompson said. “We’re not going to turn the page overnight with this situation that we’re in, but we need to make progress. Progress as individuals and progress as a team. If you’re doing that, then you’re having success and you’re being successful.”

The Wolves got some help Thursday when the Vegas Golden Knights assigned them Valentin Zykov, who led the AHL with 33 goals in 2017-18 with the Charlotte Checkers. Though his first game was Friday in Rockford since getting a 20-game suspension for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances program, Zykov already jumped to the top line.

“He’s physical, and he’s strong on pucks,” Thompson said. “He’s going to bring puck possession. He’s good on special teams as far as the power play is concerned. He’s a big-bodied guy. When he gets the puck, it’s going to be hard to get it off of him.”

Even with Zykov in the lineup, the Wolves face obstacles. The Knights called up Nicolas Roy before the game, Gage Quinney (upper body) missed his second straight game and Keegan Kolesar (upper body) hasn’t played since Nov. 7, though he’s close to returning.

That makes it more important for others to show progress, which Schuldt is seeing. He thinks the Wolves are getting better at moving the puck and playing in the opponent’s zone. Their defense also has improved.

“There’s some games recently where, obviously, we’d like to have a few of those back, but overall we’re just playing more as a group, playing for each other,” Schuldt sad. “You can kind of tell out there.”