Over the weekend, the Rockford IceHogs made a marginal move forward in their push to take a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs. On Friday night, the IceHogs dropped a closer than the score would show game to the Milwaukee Admirals. After that, Rockford would turn around and get a hard-fought home victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins behind Collin Delia‘s first professional shutout.
After the weekend’s action, the IceHogs still sit in fifth-place in the AHL Central Division with a 29-24-6 record, 64 points, and a .542 point-percentage. Rockford is .040 point-percentage points behind fourth-place Iowa Wild, .043 point-percentage points behind third-place Grand Rapids Griffins, and are only .007 point-percentage points ahead of the Milwaukee Admirals in sixth-place. To say the AHL Central Division races is a tight one would be an under-statement.
Friday: Milwaukee Admirals def. Rockford IceHogs, 4-1
It’s no surprise this season that the IceHogs will out-shoot their opponents on almost any given night. What is rare is out-shooting them by twice as many shots and losing by more than a goal. On Friday, the Admirals were able to pull off that feat at home against Rockford.
It was not the start that the visiting team would have hoped for as the Admirals were able to get on the board early with a goal from Emil Pettersson on the powerplay. Just a minute and a half into the contest and the IceHogs were already in a hole to a division opponent. The second period saw the game get knotted up behind a Rockford powerplay goal from Cody Franson. His fourth goal of the season and second in as many games on the powerplay and the teams would head to the locker rooms tied at 1-1
Entering the third period, Rockford held a 22-7 shots on goal advantage and it looked as if it was just a matter of time before they were able to find their breakthrough against Milwaukee. But with just over five minutes to play, it was the Admirals who would break the 1-1 tie with a goal from Frederic Allard. From there the flood gates opened for Milwaukee and they would add another goal just over two minutes later from Emil Pettersson to make it 3-1 on his second of the game. With the net empty, the Admirals potted an empty net goal and the game would go final at 4-1.
55 minutes of hockey essentially saw the IceHogs and Admirals battle in a playoff-type atmosphere before the Admirals broke the game open. The final shots on goal total finished at 25-12 for Rockford. Jeff Glass made his third appearance in net for Rockford since re-joining the team. He made 8 saves on 11 shots faced and saw his record fall to 10-7-2 this season.
Since returning, Glass has lost all three of his starts in regulation, giving up four, six, and three goals in those losses. While not every goal given up is 100 percent the fault of the goalie, when your team in front of you only allows you to face 11 shots, sometimes having one of those back would be nice. With the loss, the Admirals inched closer to the IceHogs in the Central Division standings with just two more meetings between the teams left on the schedule, one in Milwaukee on Saturday, March 10 and the other in Rockford on Friday, March 23.
Saturday: Rockford IceHogs def. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 3-0
Moving on to Saturday’s test against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the IceHogs hoped to get a better result than what they came away with just eight days prior in Pennsylvania when they fell 6-3 to the Penguins. Rockford turned to rookie goaltender Collin Delia in net against the Penguins and opposite him was a familiar face to the Rockford organization, Etienne Marcoux.
Marcoux signed a Professional Tryout Agreement with the WBS Penguins earlier in the week and ended up getting the start against his former affiliate organization. Playing with the ECHL affiliate of the IceHogs, the Indy Fuel, Marcoux has a record of 16-11-1 in 30 appaearances with a 3.07 GAA and a .917 save-percentage. Saturday night’s game would be Marcoux’s first AHL start.
The IceHogs would get on the board first thanks to an Anthony Louis goal just about nine minutes into the game. Louis tallied his 11th goal of the season and Lance Bouma notched his first point since joining Rockford with a secondary assist. The game would be a tense and physical battle throughout the night and seemed to benefit this Rockford team as another playoff-type atmosphere against a team that is in the Calder Cup Playoff picture already can only do them good.
Andreas Martinsen and Collin Delia after an IceHogs victory. (Courtesy: Todd Reicher)
The game would head into the third period still 1-0 in favor of Rockford, but the Penguins would out-shoot the IceHogs 20-15 heading into the final frame. It only would take 10 seconds for some breathing room to come Rockford’s way as Andreas Martinsen scored his 10th goal of the season to give the IceHogs a 2-0 lead. Martinsen’s 10-second tally broke the previous franchise record of 11 seconds by Jeff Taffe for the fastest goal to begin a period set back in 2011.
Delia would shut the door on the Penguins from there and Martinsen would add an empty-net goal for good measure and the IceHogs came away winners, 3-0 over the Penguins. The shutout marked the first professional goose-egg for Delia, stopping all 34 shots he faced and improving his record to 11-6-2 on the season with a 2.78 GAA and a .901 save-percentage.
With the win over the Penguins, along with an overtime loss by the Iowa Wild and a win by the Milwaukee Admirals, the IceHogs find themselves right in the middle of a Central Division log-jam with third and sixth places split by only .050 point-percentage points.
Delia Making Claim To Be Starter Down The Stretch
Riding the wave of his first professional shutout, IceHogs goaltender Collin Delia put his flag in the ground for his case to be the starter for the rest of the season as Rockford pushes for the Calder Cup Playoffs. Over his last 14 starts, Delia is 10-2-2 with a 2.57 GAA and a save percentage of .894. With one outlier game against the Chicago Wolves on Feb 3, which he was pulled after two periods, Delia has been near lights out since the calendar turned over to 2018.
After a shaking start to his AHL season and a less-than-stellar start in the ECHL, Delia has settled into his different roles with the IceHogs and his progression from November-December to March has been enormous. With Jeff Glass returning to Rockford and not showing his old AHL form from early on in the season, it might be time for head coach Jeremy Colliton to look at Delia as the main net-minder Rockford the rest of the way this season.
What’s Next?
The IceHogs return to action on Saturday, March 10 when they travel north to face the Milwaukee Admirals. Puck drop for Saturday’s game at the Panther Arena is set for 6pm Central Time. After that, Rockford heads back south for a Sunday afternoon matchup against the Chicago Wolves. Puck drop at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont is set for 3pm Central Time on Sunday. The next ten games for the IceHogs come against Central Division opponents, seven of which are on the road. The month of March may end up making or breaking the season for Rockford. Strap in.