Over the weekend, the Rockford IceHogs faced a tough task in a three games in three nights stretch of their schedule. The action over the weekend closed the book on the calendar year of 2017 for the IceHogs with a home-and-home series against the Iowa Wild and a road game against the Chicago Wolves.
Thursday: Rockford IceHogs def. Iowa Wild, 6-3
Opening the action in the three games in three nights stretch, the IceHogs traveled to take on the Iowa Wild. The Wild were joined by Zach Parise as he was assigned for a conditioning stint while on Long-Term Injured Reserve for the Minnesota Wild. It marked Parise’s first AHL action since the 2004-05 lockout season.
It took just three minutes for the IceHogs to open the scoring as Alexandre Fortin put home his third goal of the season to give the IceHogs the 1-0 lead. The lead would last all of 12 seconds as the Wild tied the game with a goal from Luke Kunin. Kunin’s sixth goal of the season, with an assist from Parise made it a 1-1 game.
The IceHogs would retake the lead just five minutes later as Matthew Highmore tallied his team-leading 12th goal of the year, giving Rockford the 2-1 lead. Again, the lead was short-lived for Rockford as Iowa tied it up less than three minutes later on a goal from Justin Kloos. Three minutes after that, the Wild took the 3-2 lead with a goal coming from Pat Cannone. His 11th goal of the year and the Wild took the 3-2 lead into the first intermission.
It would stay that way until late in the second period when Tyler Sikura was able to tie the game back up at 33 with his fourth goal of the season. Shortly after Sikura’s equalizer, the IceHogs took the 43 lead with Highmore’s second goal of the game, coming on the powerplay. The goal coming on the powerplay has become something of spotting a unicorn for the IceHogs who hold the dubious award for AHL’s worst powerplay of the season so far.
Rockford would add to their lead just over two minutes into the third period as William Pelletier tallied his third goal of the season to make it a 5-3 game. The IceHogs would bookend the third period with goals as Highmore netted his third goal of the game with an empty-net goal with less than a minute to play. The goal marked Highmore’s second career AHL Hat-Trick and placed him second in the AHL in rookie goal scoring with 14 goals on the season.
Collin Delia made his second ever start in the AHL for the IceHogs, his second against the Wild in as many games. Delia was good enough for Rockford, stopping 15 of 18 shots faced and notching his first career AHL win. Also with the win, the IceHogs put some valuable space between them and Iowa in the AHL Central Division for the time being.
Friday: Iowa Wild def. Rockford IceHogs, 5-3
After getting the win in Iowa, the IceHogs and Wild were ready to do it all again on Friday night back in Rockford. The Wild would be without Parise as he was recalled back to Minnesota earlier in the day. Collin Delia would get the nod in net after notching his first career AHL win on Thursday night.
Rockford would get off to a fast start for the second night in a row as they opened the scoring on a Matheson Iacopelli goal off a rebound from Erik Gustafsson. Iacopelli’s sixth goal of the year and it was quickly 1-0. The IceHogs would hold the lead and have the majority of the chances for the rest of the period until a double-minor was assessed to Andreas Martinsen. Rockford would kill-off 3:53 minutes of the 4-minute penalty, but Mario Lucia would net a rebound goal on the powerplay past Delia and the Wild would knot it up 1-1.
THe IceHogs had a powerplay opportunity near the end of the period that would be wiped away after Highmore was called for a face-off violation with 23 seconds remaining in the period. The IceHogs would again kill-off the majority of the penalty to close the first period and open the second, but with just three seconds left on the Iowa man-advantage, Luke Kunin would break the tie with his seventh goal of the season.
It would only open the flood-gates for the Wild as seven minutes later, on a three-on-one break, Lucia would score his second goal of the game to put the Wild ahead 3-1 on 16 shots on goal for Iowa. Just over two minutes later it would be a 4-1 Wild lead as Landon Ferraro would put a rebound past Delia at the halfway point in the game.
In the third period, the iceHogs came out with more of a jump but couldn’t find a breakthrough in the first seven minutes of the period. It wouldn’t be until just passed the midway point of the period that the IceHogs would explode for two goals in less than 30 seconds. Tanner Kero cut the Wild lead in half with his first goal of the year with Rockford. Quickly followed by that, Sikura would score his fifth goal of the year and cut Iowa’s lead to 4-3 with just under nine minutes to play.
With just over two minutes to play and on their sixth powerplay of the night, the IceHogs pulled Delia from net to get a six-on-four advantage to try to tie the game. The powerplay would expire without a goal and with a minute to play, Kyle Rau blocked a Ville Pokka slapshot, the puck bounced into the Rockford zone and Rau out-raced Pokka to the puck and knocked it into the empty net to seal the win for the Wild.
Rockford out-chanced the Wild 48-30 in shots on net but couldn’t find enough of a push until it was too late in the third period to get the win. Delia made 25 saves on 29 shots faced as his AHL record moved to 1-2-0 with a 3.76 GAA and a .825 save percentage.
Post-Game Audio:
Jeremy Colliton
Matthew Highmore
Anthony Louis
Saturday: Chicago Wolves def. Rockford IceHogs, 6-2
In the final game of the 2017 calendar year, Rockford headed East to take on the Chicago Wolves on the final night of the three game stretch. Over the previous five meetings in the Illinois Lottery Cup Rivalry, the IceHogs are 3-2-0 over the Wolves and hoped to keep the advantage as the calendar turned over to 2018.
In the first period, the IceHogs would have to play from behind as former Rockford standout turned Rockford killer Brandon Pirri opened the scoring on a powerplay with his 12th goal of the year just seven and a half minutes in. Pirri’s sixth point in six games against Rockford this season gave the Wolves the 1-0 lead after the first period.
Just over three minutes into the second period, the Wolves extended their lead with a shorthanded tally from T.J. Tynan to make it 2-0. But, just a minute later, the IceHogs were able to break through and cut the Chicago lead in half with an unassisted goal from Tyler Sikura. His sixth of the year and third goal is as many games made it a 2-1 game.
At the midway point of the second period, the Wolves added another special teams tally with a powerplay goal from Tomas Hyka to increase the Wolves lead to 3-1. It would stay that way until the last two minutes of the period, when Luke Johnson would score a powerplay goal of his own to cut the Chicago lead to 3-2 heading into the third period.
In the final frame of the 2017 calendar year, the IceHogs were out-matched and let up three goals to close the game for a 6-2 loss. Matt Tomkins made his AHL debut in the weekend finale against the Wolves. Tomkins made 25 saves on 31 shots faced.
With the loss, the IceHogs finished the three games in three night stretch 1-2-0 and enters the 2018 portion of this season in second place in the AHL Central Division with an 18-13-2 record with 38 points and a .576 points percentage. Rockford trails the Manitoba Moose for the Central lead as they hold a 23-6-3 reocrd with 49 points and a .766 points percentage and are tied with the Wild, who hold a 15-10-8 record.
What’s Next?
The IceHogs are off until Tuesday, Jan. 2 when they host the Cleveland Monsters. After that, Rockford will have another three games in three nights stretch as they travel to take on the Grand Rapids Griffins on Friday, Jan. 5 before coming back to Rockford to host the Monsters on Saturday and the Milwaukee Admirals on Sunday.