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Jordan Binnington, next in line for the title of the St. Louis Blues' "Goalie of the Future" took another step towards making that projection a reality on Sunday, turning aside all 16 Iowa Wild shots to stake the Chicago Wolves to a 1-0 win and put the Wolves officially into the 2015 Calder Cup playoffs.
With the shutout win, his third of the year, Binnington runs his record in his first AHL season to 24-14-4 with a 2.33 goals-against average and 91.6 save percentage.
Iowa veteran John Curry was not too shabby at the other end of the ice, turning aside 32 of 33 Wolves' shots in the loss. "Pistol" Pat Cannone tallied his 14th goal of the year at 6:47 of the second period, assisted by Mathieu Brodeur and Magnus Pääjärvi, and Binnington made it stand up for the win.
The Wolves (73 GP, 39-27-6-1, 85 pts) still have a shot at finishing as high at 5th in the Western Conference, but in order to do so, they have to win the last three games of the regular season this week, while both defending champion Texas (73 GP, 37-22-13-1, 88 pts) and the departing (for Bakersfield, CA in 2015-16) Oklahoma City Barons (73 GP, 39-26-5-3, 86 pts) must finish with no more than 90 points. If the Wolves and Stars both finish with 91 points, the Wolves will earn the higher seed by virtue of more wins.
LINK to official scoresheet at theahl dot com.