Gameday Preview: Texas Stars at Chicago Wolves

Texas Stars 10-6-1-1, 22 pts, 0.611 #3 Pacific Division

at

Chicago Wolves 8-9-1-1, 18 pts, 0.474 #6 Central Division

November 30th at 7:00 PM

Allstate Arena, Rosemont, IL

If the AHL were a team itself, the Chicago Wolves would be a grizzled veteran. Since coming over in the IHL merger, the Wolves have been a consistent playoff presence and an excellent team on the regular. This year, they find themselves hovering around the .500 mark at 8-9-1-1. They were briefly at .500 last week before losing to Manitoba on Sunday.

Looking at the Wolves' schedule is a weird exercise. Chicago only plays 9 different teams this season: the seven other teams in their division and Texas and San Antonio. Chicago will not visit California or have any California team visit them. Even Texas and San Antonio only play Chicago four times each. That's 68 games among seven teams. Yuck.

Chicago returns both of their netminders in Pheonix Copley and Jordan Binnington. Both are around .920 on save percentage. Brad Hunt, former OKC Baron, leads the team in points with 5-15=20. Kenny Agostino, formerly in the Calgary system, is tied with Ivan Barbashev for second. Wade Megan, the former Rampage, is in the goal-scoring lead with eight. Three of those are game-winners.

Chicago is losing a lot of their games close. In their losses this season, they've never been defeated by more than two goals.

Texas shook things up a bit in the lineup since their last game. In net, Texas swapped Landon Bow for Philippe Desrosiers in Idaho. Branden Troock was sent to Idaho, among forwards, and Brandon Anselmini was recalled among defensemen.

Stars injury/call up report:
Honka (call up)

Website: chicagowolves.com
Twitter: @Chicago_Wolves
Twitter: @theshaves (Wolves PxP)