The Chicago Wolves are heading back to the Calder Cup Finals after a 3-0 win over the Stockton Heat in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night.
The Wolves won the series, four games to two, to capture the Robert W. Clarke Trophy as Western Conference champions and reach the Finals for the fifth time (2002, 2005, 2008, 2019).
A goaltending duel between Pyotr Kochetkov and Dustin Wolf kept the game scoreless into the third period until Ivan Lodnia scored off a feed from Spencer Smallman at the 8:35 mark to give Chicago a 1-0 lead. The Wolves scored the game’s first goal in all six contests during the series.
Andrew Poturalski scored a huge insurance goal with 1:20 to play, and Josh Leivo tacked on an empty-netter for his league-leading 11th goal of the postseason.
Kochetkov (2-1) made 28 saves for his first career North American shutout. He had a .941 save percentage in his three starts during the series.
Wolf (8-5) closed out a terrific rookie season with 35 saves, allowing two goals or fewer for the eighth time in 13 postseason starts.
Chicago will open the Calder Cup Finals at home on Sunday afternoon against the winner of Wednesday’s Game 7 between the Springfield Thunderbirds and Laval Rocket.
C1-Chicago Wolves vs. P1-Stockton Heat
Game 1 – Fri., June 3 – CHICAGO 5, Stockton 4 (OT)
Game 2 – Mon., June 6 – CHICAGO 3, Stockton 2
Game 3 – Wed., June 8 – Chicago 3, STOCKTON 0
Game 4 – Fri., June 10 – STOCKTON 4, Chicago 3 (OT)
Game 5 – Sat., June 11 – STOCKTON 3, Chicago 2 (OT)
Game 6 – Tue., June 14 – CHICAGO 3, Stockton 0
