The Rockford IceHogs look to bounce back this weekend after dropping their Wednesday ‘School Day’ game, 2-1 to the Iowa Wild. With back-to-back contests at home, the IceHogs look to gain ground in the AHL Central Division with games against the Grand Rapids Griffins on Saturday night and Chicago Wolves on Sunday afternoon.
Wednesday: Iowa Wild def. Rockford IceHogs, 2-1
On Wednesday morning, the IceHogs host in the Iowa Wild in their annual ‘School Day’ game. The Wild held their own ‘School Day’ game promotion against the IceHogs last week, so the early 10:30am puck drop wasn’t anything unfamiliar for Rockford.
The IceHogs jumped out to the early lead in the first period as Alexandre Fortin scored his first goal of the season to put the IceHogs up 1-0 mid-way through the opening period. Rockford was able to draw a penalty with about five minutes to play in the first period, but while on the powerplay, Iowa’s Zack Mitchell scored short-handed to tie the game after one period.
The Wild and IceHogs would both go zero-for on the powerplays with Iowa failing to convert on four opportunities on the powerplay and the IceHogs failing to score on five man-advantages. A scoreless second period led to a 1-1 game into the third period.
In the third period, the Wild were able to tally the eventual game-winning goal mid-way through the period. Iowa’s Justin Kloos scored his fourth of the season and put the Wild up 2-1 for good. Rockford’s J.F. Berube made 25 saves on 27 shots faced but records his fifth loss of the season and is now 5-5-0 on the year after winning his first five games.
Likewise, the IceHogs have now dropped five of their last six games and have fallen from first place in the Central Division to fourth place at 8-7-0, 16 pts (.533 pts%).
After the game, Rockford head coach Jeremy Colliton spoke to the media:
Saturday: Grand Rapids Griffins at Rockford IceHogs
Rockford looks to get back on track against the Grand Rapids Griffins on Saturday in the third meeting between the teams this season. Prior to Saturday’s contest, the IceHogs hold two victories over the Griffins in the previous two meetings, a shootout win on Oct. 20 (3-2) and a 4-3 win on Oct. 28.
The Griffins will be coming into town on the second night of a back-to-back, having faced the Wild on Friday night. Grand Rapids boasts the AHL’s fourth-best powerplay at a 22.1% success rate and have the league’s 12th ranked penalty-kill with an 83.5% kill-rate.
The Griffins are led in scoring by Matt Puempel, who started the season with the Hartford Wolfpack, with 16 points (6G,10A) in 15 games overall, 13 points in 10 games with the Griffins.
Saturday’s puck drop is slated for 6:00pm CT at the BMO Harris Bank Center.
Sunday: Chicago Wolves at Rockford IceHogs
The IceHogs will close the weekend with a late Sunday afternoon tilt against another Central Division foe in the Chicago Wolves. It will mark the first meeting between the teams of the season and is the first Illinois Lottery Cup game of the 2017-18 season. The Wolves are the reigning Illinois Lottery Cup champions after winning the 2016-17 season-long series against Rockford.
Chicago will be coming off of a Friday night game against the Manitoba Moose in Manitoba, and currently sit in at the bottom of the Central Division with a 4-8-1, 9 pts (.346 pts%) record. While not imposing on the powerplay, the Wolves have the second highest penalty-kill rate in the AHL at 88.1%.
The Wolves are led in scoring by Teemu Pulkkinen, who has 15 points (6G,9A) in 13 games for the Wolves so far this season. Sunday’s contest will also mark the return of a familiar face to Rockford as Brandon Pirri will be in town with the Wolves. Pirri this season has six points (3G,3A) in seven games with the Wolves, including two goals this month. Pirri played in 238 games with the Rockford IceHogs from 2010-2014, scoring 200 points and also made 35 appearances with the Chicago Blackhawks, tallying 13 points.
Puck drop for Sunday afternoon’s game is set for 4:00pm CT at the BMO Harris Bank Center.