Maltais sits as Wolves win

Wolves 2 Admirals 0

Coach Grant Mulvey stripped Steve Maltais of the Wolves'captaincy this season. Saturday he didn't even have theInternational Hockey League's No. 4 scorer dress for a meeting withthe Milwaukee Admirals at the Horizon.

The strategy didn't help the Wolves' offense, but they did gaina 2-0 victory before 7,529 over a previously invincible goaltender.The Admirals' Danny Lorenz was 6-0-0 vs. the Wolves until Saturday.This time he was foiled by two Dan Currie power-play goalswhile Wendell Young silenced the Admirals. Young notched his secondshutout, the third in Wolves history.Ray LeBlanc had the first shutout in the team's inauguralseason, 1994-95. Young notched his first Dec. 6, 1995, against Utahat the Horizon.Mulvey said Maltais was "a healthy scratch." He played inFriday's 6-4 home loss to Indianapolis, so Mulvey's decision toscratch him appeared to be an effort to shake the Wolves out of apuzzling slump. It seemed to work."Everybody was really playing committed," Mulvey said."Everybody was diving for shots, doing everything to keep the puckaway from Wendell."The Wolves (16-12-2) were 1-2-1 in their last four home games.Last year the Wolves were 21-14-6 at the Horizon.Maltais was a 50-goal scorer in each of the last two years,making him the 12th player in the IHL's 51-year history to reach thatlevel in back-to-back seasons.This season he has 15 goals and 23 assists. His 38 points trailonly teammate Rob Brown (56 points after two assists Saturday), LenBarrie of San Antonio (46) and Mark Beaufait of Orlando (39) in theIHL scoring race. Maltais, who was replaced as captain by newaddition Troy Murray two weeks ago, had 11 goals in his previous 13games.Goaltenders Young and Lorenz were locked in a scoreless duelfor 39 minutes. Lorenz allowed a power-play goal by Currie with 51seconds left in the second period. It snapped an 0-for-15 slump bythe Wolves' power-play unit.Brown, along with Steve Bancroft, assisted on Currie's goal.That ran Brown's point streak to 27 games - longest in the IHL thisseason.The Wolves upped the lead to 2-0 with 8:52 left in the game onanother Currie power-play goal, Brown and Kip Miller assisting.