Wolves drop series opener to Texas 4-3 in OT

ROSEMONT—The Wolves battled from three one-goal deficits to force overtime before falling, 4-3, to the Texas Stars in Game 1 of the West Division Final at the Allstate Arena Friday night. Texas now leads the best-of-seven series, 1-game-to-0. The Wolves tied the game, 3-3, to force overtime with 5:35 left in the third period. Center Matt Anderson knocked the puck back to right wing Joey Crabb off a face-off in the Stars zone and Crabb fought his way through traffic and ripped a shot past Stars netminder Brent Krahn.Texas got the decisive goal while working on a power-play opportunity early in the overtime period, when defenseman Garrett Stafford rifled a shot past a screened netminder Peter Mannino’s blocker to win the game.Home team goals came from Crabb, center Jason Krog and right wing Anthony Stewart, while Texas (5-0) also got markers from Colton Sceviour, Francis Wathier and Jamie Benn.The Stars opened scoring, 6:34 into the contest. Texas’ Scott McCulloch carried the puck around the net and was hit by a Wolves player along the boards but was able to slip a pass out to Sceviour for a quick tap past Mannino.The Wolves (4-4) answered 53 seconds later with a tally from Krog. Defenseman Arturs Kulda picked the puck up streaking past the net and dished it across for Krog to flip past Stars netminder Brent Krahn to even the score, 1-1.Wathier put the Stars ahead, 2-1, on a delayed penalty when he deflected Maxime Fortunus’ long shot from near the blue line by Mannino at 1:43 of the second period.Mannino (4-3) posted 24 saves on 28 shots for the Wolves.Stewart brought the Wolves even once again, 2-2, with a power-play goal at 6:36. Defenseman Nathan Oystrick sent a shot sliding across the crease from the face-off circle and Stewart streaked in and knocked it past Krahn.Krahn (5-0) turned aside 32 shots for the Stars.Texas took a 3-2 lead just 16 seconds into the third period when Jamie Benn picked up a rebound from Dan Jancevski’s long shot and snapped a shot from the slot past Mannino.The Wolves will host Game 2 at Allstate Arena on Sunday at 3 p.m.