ROCKFORD ICEHOGS GAME RECAP: OT Streakin’ RFD (2) GR (1)

(Photo by Nicolas Carrillo via Griffins Flickr)

The Rockford IceHogs finally defeated the Grand Rapids Griffins on Saturday. It’s been a rough road for Rockford this year. They looked to keep that positivity ball rolling when they faced off against the Griffins again on Tuesday. I’d say they accomplished that with a 2-1 overtime win!

Here’s the lineup that the Icehogs rolled with:

L1: #84 Andrei Altybarmakyan - #58 MacKenzie Entwistle - #79 D.J. Busdeker

L2: #67 Matej Chalupa - #26 Evan Barratt - #53 Michal Teply

L3: #76 Tim Sōderlund - #39 Dylan McLaughlin - #42 Gabriel Gagne 

L4: #68 Riley McKay- #14 Garrett Mitchell “C” - #49 Mitchell Fossier

D1: #75 Alec Regula - #11 Cody Franson “A”

D2: #54 Anton Lindholm - #63 Michael Krutil

D3: #41 Isaak Phillips - #56 Dmitry Osipov

#90 Matt Tomkins

#31 Cale Morris

Michal Teply was finally back in the lineup after suffering an injury in the first game of the year. Anton Lindholm made his season debut.

On to the game!

It appears that if you’ve seen one start to an IceHogs game, you’ve seen them all. More times than not, they start slow, don’t get any shots, and can’t control the puck. That plagued them once again on Tuesday.

Midway through the period, things went south for the IceHogs.

Griffins Goal #1: Chase Pearson - Dylan McIlrath

Alec Regula had the puck all alone in the right corner. When pressure approached, he threw a blind pass right to the center of the ice. Was there an IceHog there to receive it? There was not. But, there were two Griffins! Dylan McIlrath grabbed the puck and pushed it over to Chase Pearson who was all alone in Matt Tomkins, and it was an easy tap in. 

END OF 1:

IceHogs - 0

Griffins - 1

SOG: 15-9 GR

The first period wasn’t anything exciting. Both power plays failed to convert. Grand Rapids was just lucky enough to get a goal off of an Alec Regula turnover. 

The second period was a different story to start. The IceHogs had some pace to their game. They looked more fired up and ready to create some chances. Create, they did. 

IceHogs Goal #1: Gabriel Gagne - Dylan McLaughlin, Cody Franson

Cody Franson took the shot from the point which was stopped by Calvin Pickard. The rebound went directly to Dylan McLaughlin who hit Gabriel Gagne for the perfect redirection. 

That was Gagne’s first goal of the season, and the game was tied. 

They had a few more shots, but the rest of the period was the Matt Tomkins show - stopping all 15 shots he faced in the second. 

END OF 2:

IceHogs - 1

Griffins - 1

SOG: 31-18 GR

Matt Tomkins show, you say? Yeah, that continued in the third period. 

All you have to know is the IceHogs had 3 shots on goal compared to the Griffins 16. 

Ouch. 

But, Tomkins must have taken his Superhero pills that morning. He stopped them all. 

And off to overtime they went!

END OF 3:

IceHogs - 1

Griffins - 1

SOG: 47-21 GR

After the first overtime game of the season, the IceHogs have seemed to enjoy playing overtime hockey. They’ve won all but that first one in Iowa. So, you’d think going to overtime favored the team from Rockford. That didn’t make us feel any better watching it - especially seeing that Grand Rapids put more than double the shots on Matt Tomkins and won the opening draw of the OT period. 

Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait long for the result. 

IceHogs Goal #2: Dylan McLaughlin - Isaak Phillips, Tim Sōderlund

OVERTIME HERO DYLAN MCLAUGHLIN STRUCK AGAIN! After scoring the overtime goal in the previous game against the Griffins, he wanted to show he could do it again - and he did. 

19 seconds into overtime. 

I said the Griffins won the opening draw, but the puck was soon on Tim Sōderlund’s stick and Grand Rapids wasn’t too happy about it. They slashed his stick out of his hands. 

By that time, the puck had gotten to Isaak Phillips; while the Griffins were too concerned with bullying Sōderlund, Phillips broke into the zone and cut to the middle of the ice - drawing 3 defenders with him. 

If you do the math, that leaves one guy open (since Timmy was off getting a stick). 

That guy was Dylan McLaughlin. 

Isaak Phillips, cool as a cucumber, tapped the puck behind him to McLaughlin who was wide open and wasted no time putting the puck over the top of Calvin Pickard’s glove. 

That, my friends, resulted in an 

ICEHOGS

WIN!

END OF OT:

IceHogs - 2

Griffins - 1

SOG: 47-22 GR

Matt Tomkins was the first, second, and third star of the last two IceHogs games. He made a career-high 42 saves on Saturday and topped that with 46 on Tuesday. Since coming back from the Blackhawks Taxi Squad, he’s looked like a completely different player. If he can keep this up, the IceHogs may collect more wins than anyone thought after the first bunch of games. 

It’s fun to see your goaltender make saves and all, but the team in front of him needs to be better. They cannot keep giving up over 40 shots per game and expect the same results. They got pretty lucky in the last 2 games. They need to tighten up defensively and work on getting more shots of their own. 

But, for now, we can say they’re on a win streak. Feels good.