Wolves rally twice, lose to Iowa

The Chicago Wolves twice rallied from deficits but in the end fell to the Iowa Wild 3-2 on Saturday night at Allstate Arena.

Rocco Grimaldi had a goal and an assist and Alex Green also scored for the Wolves, but Jack Peart notched the game-winner in the third period to lift the Wild.

Iowa, which won seven of eight matchups with the Wolves this season, quickly jumped to the lead when Joel Teasdale found the back of the net 1 minute, 39 seconds into the opening period.

It didn’t take long for the Wolves to answer as Grimaldi tied it while on the power play 1:37 later. The forward took a pass from Chris Terry and ripped a wrist shot from the right dot that sailed past Wild goaltender Zane McIntyre to the stick side. Terry and Domenick Fensore earned assists on Grimaldi’s team-leading 36th goal of the season.

Adam Beckman’s goal late in the first gave the Wild a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.

Midway through the second, the Wolves knotted it at 2-2 on a nifty passing play. Josh Melnick carried the puck into the offensive zone, passed the puck to Grimaldi who returned it to Melnick and the forward then fed a rushing Green and the defenseman buried his second goal of the season.

Wolves goaltender Keith Kinkaid kept things even when he stoned the Wild’s Adam Raska on a penalty shot with 8.7 seconds remaining in the middle period.

In the third Peart blasted a shot past Kinkaid and Iowa hung on for the win.

Kinkaid (35 saves) suffered the loss in goal for the Wolves while McIntyre (19 saves) earned the win for the Wild.

The Wolves fell to 23-35-6-7 on the season while Iowa moved to 27-37-4-4.