Sunday Night Snowdown
There was once a snowy and slushy Sunday night in the great town of Rockford, Illinois when the San Antonio Rampage came into town to face the hometown boys, the Rockford IceHogs. The Rampage players are used to skating on ice, but being from Texas, they aren’t used to weathering it out in the wild. This came as a great advantage to the IceHogs as they welcomed them into their home at the BMO Harris Bank Center with a warm sense of security, AND THEN THEY BEAT THEM ALL THE WAY BACK TO TEXAS.
Oh, that was just this past weekend? Excuse me, I just wanted to tell a great tale about how the IceHogs have won two straight games on the back of goaltender Kevin Lankinen and provided the hometown crowd with quite the weekend!
Now, usually goaltenders will rotate starts on back-to-back nights, but after the good vibes from Saturday night’s comeback, Lankinen took to guarding the crease on Sunday as well.
The roster surprise for me was that Joni Tuulola was scratched. If you recall from the last piece, I was raving about the beautiful goal he scored to tie the game. But, I wasn’t aware that Brandon Davidson was back after suffering an injury shortly after being sent down to Rockford from Chicago.
Davidson comes in adding a much-needed steady presence to the blue line for Rockford. He’s a veteran guy on this team, and he’s only 27 years old. It was his first game back, so he couldn’t be expected to light the world on fire* (we’ll get back to this…), but it’s always great to see guys come back from injury.
The IceHogs came out with a purpose in the first period. It was a much better showing than the night before. Kevin Lankinen was showing off his athleticism going post-to-post for saves, the Hogs were taking shots on goal, and they topped it off with a beautiful play to take the first goal of the game!
William Pelletier entered the zone, got the puck to Andreas Martinsen who threw the puck over to Luke Johnson who proceeded to neatly tuck the puck behind the goalie.
1-0 IceHogs.
This lead took us into the first intermission with the shots being 12-8 IceHogs.
After the second period began, it didn’t take long for the IceHogs to get out to the most dangerous lead in hockey. Jordan Schroeder shot down the right wing and lasered a puck over the goalie’s glove. 2-0 IceHogs.
That’s about as good as it got for the IceHogs that period. San Antonio came charging back hard after Schroeder’s goal. They were playing like their lives depended on them winning that game. Shot after shot – save after save. Lankinen was being attacked and he was doing his best to keep the Rampage off the score sheet, but the goalie can only do so much. The puck found its way into the net and it’s 2-1.
Then all of a sudden it was 2-2. Oh boy. Here we go. There’s no way the IceHogs pull off two great third periods in a row, right? It seemed like the beginning of the end right here, friends. They came out flying in the first period, but the second was not their friend and the grey jerseys from Texas had life.
But, friends, let me remind you that the IceHogs had Kevin Lankinen in net. He was not about to let this one get away. With 5 minutes to go in the second period he goes down into the full splits to keep the puck from getting past him. It was a crazy good save. It was athletic. It was timely. But, man, it hurt me just to watch it happen. I don’t know how he does that. I guess that’s why he gets paid the money to be a goaltender and I’m just here typing words on a computer. . . I digress.
At the end of the second period, the game was tied at 2. Shots were 22-19 San Antonio. Let’s just take a peek back up at the totals from the end of the first. . . the IceHogs had 7 shots in the second period. San Antonio had FOURTEEN. Poor Kevin.
The IceHogs needed a third period like Saturday’s. The situation wasn’t as dire, but they needed the points. They needed the points, and they needed to take the two points without giving up one in the standings. The playoff race is here, and it is real, and it is stressing me out so I’ll cover that in another article so I can get through this one without needed a paper bag to breathe into.
The third period was probably the least stressful part of this game – somehow. The IceHogs were winning board battles, they were playing hard, and there was a sense that they wanted this one as much as the home crowd did.
*Five minutes into the final frame, Jacob Nilsson drove hard to the net and BRANDON DAVIDSON was at the goal mouth to make sure that puck didn’t do anything but go to the back of the net. This is where we go back to talking about B Davey. It was his first game back from injury. For most of the game, he was steady and pretty unnoticeable – Which, for a defensemen, is a good thing. It was great to see him come back healthy and get the most important goal of the game. I didn't expect him to do anything noteworthy, but I can be wrong sometimes.
With a power play opportunity, the Hogs had a chance to take another two-goal lead with under 10 minutes to go, but they resorted back to over-passing instead of taking the opportunity to shoot the puck. I would be a lot angrier about this if the end result of the game was different.
With the clock ticking down and San Antonio with an empty net, William Pelletier added an insurance goal. 4-2.
2:30 to go. San Antonio pressing. Defense on full lockdown.
3.9 seconds to go. . . EMPTY NET GOAL FROM NICK MOUTREY!
ICEHOGS WIN! ICEHOGS WIN! ICEHOGS WIN!!!!!!
What a weekend. What a team.
The IceHogs added a cherry to the winning Sundae (heh, puns). The final score was 5-2. The shot total was 29-25 IceHogs. Let’s just take a moment to admire the IceHogs giving up only 3 shots in the third period. I love defensive hockey.
Your three stars of the game were:
#3 Kevin Lankinen
#2 Jordan Schroeder
#1 BRANDON DAVIDSON!
The next IceHogs home game is March 1. Grab your tickets at the BMO Harris Bank Center or online at ticketmaster.com