The Wolves have had little trouble thus far in the AHL Playoffs. They swept the Rockford Icehogs 3-0 then beat the Milwaukee Admirals 3-1. The Central Division Champs will now faceoff with the Stockton Heat for the Western Conference Finals.
The Heat will be the Wolves’ toughest matchup yet. Chicago may have the best record in the AHL (50-16-10), but Stockton has the second best (45-16-7). The Heat were actually better than the Wolves defensively in terms of Goals Allowed this year, but not as good on the offensive end. Below we see where the Wolves and Heat plot out in terms of goals scored and allowed against the other AHL teams this season.
Stockton beat Bakersfield 3-0 and Colorado 3-1 in the first two rounds. Their only loss was 6-5 in overtime of game three. In the other three games against Colorado, the Heat didn’t even allow a single goal! They won 5-0, 1-0 and 1-0 in those games. This will be a matchup of Stockton’s defensive strength vs Chicago’s offensive strength.
Goalie Matchup
Chicago Wolves
| Goalie | Game | Saves | Shots | Save % |
| Alex Lyon | 1 vs MIL | 33 | 35 | 94.3 |
| Alex Lyon | 2 vs MIL | 30 | 32 | 93.8 |
| Alex Lyon | 3 @ MIL | 21 | 25 | 84.0 |
| Alex Lyon | 4 @ MIL | 17 | 18 | 94.4 |
Stockton Heat
| Goalie | Game | Saves | Shots | Save % |
| Dustin Wolf | 1 vs COL | 23 | 23 | 100.0 |
| Dustin Wolf | 2 vs COL | 27 | 27 | 100.0 |
| Dustin Wolf | 3 @ COL | 32 | 38 | 84.2 |
| Dustin Wolf | 4 @ COL | 40 | 40 | 100.0 |
Heat goaltender Dustin Wolf has been on fire lately with three shutouts against Colorado and most recently had a 40 save shutout to close out the previous that series in Colorado.
This should be a really intriguing matchup between an elite offense and an elite defense with a hot goalie. The two teams haven’t ever met so there’s no prior matchups to look into. The AHL schedule has a heavy concentration of division games with much less travel so it may take some time to see how these two styles clash.
Western Conference Finals Schedule
| Game 1 | Friday, June 3 | 7 PM @ CHI |
| Game 2 | Monday, June 6 | 7 PM @ CHI |
| Game 3 | Wednesday, June 8 | 8:30 PM @ STK |
| Game 4 | Friday, June 10 | 9 PM @ STK |
| Game 5* | Saturday, June 14 | 8 PM @ STK |
| Game 6* | Tuesday, June 14 | 7 PM @ CHI |
| Game 7* | Wednesday, June 15 | 7 PM @ CHI |