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Wolves send series to the limit

(chicagowolves.com) — Chicago Wolves center Steve Reinprecht tallied two goals and goaltender Eddie Lack stopped 30 shots to lead the Wolves to a 3-1 win in Game 4 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals Wednesday night at the Allstate Arena.

Forward Tim Miller added an empty-net tally in the final minute for Chicago, which will battle San Antonio in a winner-take-all Game 5 at 8:30 ET (AHL Live) Friday at the Allstate Arena.

“I can’t say that is the way we drew it up,” said Wolves head coach Craig MacTavish. “But sometimes in playoff hockey you need spectacular goaltending to carry you and Eddie did that for us tonight.”

With Chicago (2-2) trailing 1-0 and less than three minutes left in the second period, Reinprecht evened the score with a power-play tally at 17:53. Defenseman Brad Hunt worked the puck to captain Nolan Baumgartner, who walked into the near circle, faked a shot and slipped a pass to Reinprecht in front of the crease. He redirected the puck past Rampage netminder Dov Grumet-Morris.

The Wolves grabbed a 2-1 lead with Reinprecht’s second tally of the night. He skated the puck up along the near boards, made a move on the Rampage defenseman in the near circle, and flicked a shot on net that snuck under Grumet-Morris’ arm at 12:00 of the third period.

Miller sealed the win for the Wolves with an empty-net tally at 19:32.

Grumet-Morris (0-2) stopped 12 shots in the loss.

San Antonio (2-2) opened scoring 43 seconds into the game when center Jon Matsumoto won a face-off in the far circle back to defenseman Michael Caruso. His shot from the point passed a screened Lack (2-1).