ROCKFORD ICEHOGS GAME RECAP: Fast and Furious IA (3) RFD (4)

(Photo by Todd Reicher via IceHogs Flickr)

The Rockford IceHogs earned their second win of the 2021 season with a 3-2 victory over the Iowa Wild on Saturday night. They didn’t have much time to rest, because they were back at it with the Wild on Sunday at 4pm. The last time they had a back-to-back, they won the second game. They hoped to do the same again on Sunday. They did. A 4-3 victory over the Iowa Wild gave the IceHogs their third win of the season. 

They are now on their very first two game winning streak. Take a moment to let that sink in. Beautiful, eh?

Here’s the lineup that the Icehogs rolled with:

L1: #84 Andrei Altybarmakyan - #58 MacKenzie Entwistle - #47 John Quenneville “A”

L2: #67 Matej Chalupa - #26 Evan Barratt - #52 Reese Johnson

L3: #68 Riley McKay - #14 Garrett Mitchell “C” - #D.J. Busdeker

L4: #78 Brad Morrison - #61 Chad Yetman - #59 Mikael Hakkarainen

D1: #74 Nicolas Beaudin - #11 Cody Franson “A”

D2: #63 Michael Krutil - #56 Dmitry Osipov

D3: #41 Isaak Phillips - #Cole Moberg

#60 Collin Delia

#31 Cale Morris

There were only a couple of roster changes for Sunday’s game. 

Brad Morrison and Mikael Hakkarainen were quietly sent back to Rockford before the game and reappeared in the IceHogs lineup. It was good to see Morrison back in. He’s been one of the most efficient forwards for the IceHogs this season. 

Collin Delia was back in net for the back-to-back start. Hunter Jones got the same treatment in net for the Iowa Wild. 

Another fun little tidbit - Sunday was Riley McKay’s 22nd birthday. He’s was the starting line. How fun!

On to the game!

2:06 into the first period, the IceHogs got the first PP of the game. Without Brandon Pirri, I was curious to see that the power play would look like. They weren’t getting anything set up. Then they were gifted a wonderful opportunity. 

Mason Shaw took a slashing penalty and the IceHogs were given 1:05 of 5-on-3 power play time. The unfortunate part is that the Wild had the better chances on that 5-on-3 than the IceHogs did. IceHogs rookie D-man, Isaak Phillips, made a great play to break up a 2-on-1 rush for the Wild. 

The IceHogs only managed to get 2 shots off on that man advantage which wasn’t great. But, they kept working once the power play expired. 

IceHogs Goal #1: Andrei Altybarmakyan - Dmitry Osipov

Andrei Altybarmakyan grabbed the puck at center ice and rushed the puck down the left wing. He decided to do the work all by himself, drove to the net, and was able to use a mixture of skill and mind control to get the puck on his back hand and behind Jones. 

The IceHogs went back to the power play shortly after, but they came up empty-handed once again. Rockford was getting some more possession time in the first period, and on the power play, than we’ve been used to seeing -- which isn’t saying much. But, they couldn’t get anything set up with the man advantage. The Wild were putting in some good work on their penalty kills, but the IceHogs were being a bit sloppy with the puck. 

With the period winding down, the IceHogs had some great shifts and even had the Wild pinned in their own zone at times. But, the Wild battled back and had some great shifts of their own which led to Iowa getting their first power play of the game after Riley McKay went off for cross-checking. 

With 1:03 to go in the period, the Iowa Wild capitalized on their man advantage. 

Wild Goal #1: Connor Dewar (PP) - Calen Addison, Gabriel Dumont

After finally stopping a shot from the right circle, Connor Dewar got the puck in the left circle. There was a screen in front of Delia and he couldn’t locate the puck through traffic. It just beat him and the game was tied. 

That goal was incredibly frustrating. The Wild were able to get 5 shots on goal during the power play after the IceHogs had held them to just 2 for the rest of the period. 

END OF 1:

IceHogs - 1

Wild - 1

SOG: 9-7 RFD

The IceHogs had a pretty positive first period. Unfortunately, the second period always follows the first period. And the second period has been the IceHogs’ Kryptonite. If they wanted to stay in this game, they had to come out with a similar effort to the first, but eliminate some of mistakes. 

The IceHogs had a great opportunity to begin the second period on a positive note as Calen Addison sent the puck over the glass 17 seconds in. But, the IceHogs didn’t get many scoring chances on the mad advantage, and time expired without the home team scoring. 

IceHogs Goal #2: Evan Barratt - Isaak Phillips

Evan Barratt skated the puck to the left circle and absolutely blasted the puck over the blocker of Hunter Jones. 

But the second period has to turn into a horror movie every single time. 

Wild Goal #2: Connor Dewar - Calen Addison, Mitchell Chaffee

In typical IceHogs fashion, the shifts following a Rockford goal were detrimental. An IceHogs defender had a blowout in the neutral zone leading to a Wild odd-man rush. Delia stopped that chance, but the IceHogs could not clear the puck and Iowa was able to send more pucks to the net. On the final shot, the puck lay in the blue paint to the left of Collin Delia and he could not move fast enough to grab it. 

Quickly following that goal, the IceHogs decided it was time to blow the whole game up and took a penalty. They did a decent job of killing the penalty until Quenneville tried to whack an Wild skater’s legs off and went to the box for tripping giving the Wild a 5 on 3 power play for just under a minute. 

Iowa created some mad scrambles in front of the net causing Collin Delia to flop all over the ice making saves. But they were able to set up a scoring play. 

Wild Goal #3: Damien Giroux (PP) - Calen Addison, Mason Shaw. 

Damien Giroux found the puck at the right post and popped the puck past Collin Delia. 

The IceHogs did not build off of their good habits from the first period or take any momentum from opening the scoring in the second period. Instead, they thought it would be fun to drive the bus off a cliff. 

With the period winding down, the IceHogs had a 3 on 1 odd man rush. There were some sloppy passes, but D.J. Busdeker got the puck in front of a wide open net. Instead of shooting the puck into the goal net, he shot it into the net above the glass. That doesn’t count on the scoresheet, so the IceHogs hung their heads low and skated into the intermission down by one. 

Not only that.

They allowed 14 shots on goal while only firing 5 of their own. 

The second period was bad for the IceHogs. 

Water is wet. Sky is blue. Second period is bad. 

END OF 2:

IceHogs - 2

Wild - 3

SOG: 21-14 Wild

One period to play. The second wasn’t good for Rockford, but they didn’t look completely lifeless. They just needed to regroup at the intermission and come into the third with purpose. 

2:01 into the final frame, the IceHogs had a chance to go on the power play. 

Will Bitten had a partial breakaway chance while killing the penalty, but Andrei Altybarmakyan got back with a terrific back check to break up the play without taking a penalty. 

The IceHogs could not convert which put them at 0/5 on the man advantage. 

With 11:49 to go in the game, the IceHogs showed up to the final period. 

IceHogs Goal #3: D.J. Busdeker - MacKenzie Entwistle, Cole Moberg

Cole Moberg bombed a shot from the point. MacKenzie Entwistle found the rebound and sent a nifty pass to D.J. Busekder who was able to get the puck out of his skates and send it behind Hunter Jones. 

With the period winding down, D.J. Busdeker put the IceHogs in a tough spot when he sent the puck over the glass for a delay of games. The Iowa Wild were 2/3 on the power play at that point. There was still 3:20 left in the game. Ouch. 

But, the penalty killers took their job seriously. Collin Delia came up with some huge stops and his defenseman made some huge shot blocks. 

Penalty . . . KILLED. 

The action ramped up after the kill, and it was a wild finish to the period. But, there were no goals. 

To overtime, it went.

END OF 3:

IceHogs - 3

Wild - 3

SOG: 30-24 Wild

The IceHogs couldn’t get possession of the puck to begin overtime. Iowa had some decent pressure. One chance, in particular, saw an Iowa attacker all alone with Delia and a whole lot of room to shoot on him short side. The Wild player sent the puck high. 

I bet he wants that chance back. 

IceHogs Goal #4: Andrei Altybarmakyan - Brad Morrison

Immediately after the miss by Iowa, Andrei Altybarmakyan had the puck in the slot and ripped a wrist shot past the glove of Hunter Jones. He got a piece of it, but not enough. 

ICE

HOGS

WIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

END OF OT:

IceHogs - 4

Wild - 3

SOG: 30-25 Wild

There were a lot of IceHogs passes that went to the skates of defenders. The IceHogs discipline was also in question. Too many times this year we’ve seen moments that should have given the IceHogs positive momentum, but they don’t grab onto it and make horrible mental mistakes instead. 

But, they were able to overcome those mistakes and battle all the way to the end. Collin Delia came up with some massive stops in the game. The guys in front of him came up with some big shot blocks. The skaters were battling for pucks. Those are all parts of the recipe for success. 

Now, this IceHogs team needs to put in these efforts with consistency. They have a touch test ahead of them this week as they face the Grand Rapids Griffins on Thursday. The Griffins have given this IceHogs team absolute fits. We’ll see how it goes.