The Rockford IceHogs are coming off of their first back-to-back losses of the season and are welcomed by a three games in three days stretch of their schedule. This marks the second such stretch that the IceHogs have faced so far this season and won’t be the last as they have two more three-in-three stretches to face this season. But such is the AHL schedule.
The IceHogs will have two familiar foes sandwiching an out of division match-up at home starting on Thursday. Road games against the Iowa Wild and Milwaukee Admirals will be broken up by a home game against the San Antonio Rampage as the IceHogs look to get back into the win column and keep their place at the top of the AHL Central Division.
Ahead of this weekend’s action, Rockford head coach Jeremy Colliton spoke to the media after Tuesday’s practice:
Thursday at Iowa Wild
On Thursday, the IceHogs will travel west to Iowa to take on the Wild in a rare 10:30am CT puck drop for the Wild’s School Day Game promotion. It will mark the third match-up against the Wild in the first dozen games for the IceHogs. The IceHogs have won each of their first two games against Iowa this season and are outscoring the Wild 9-5.
Iowa sits at the bottom of the Central Division at 3-6-2, 8 points (.364 pt %) and are coming off a home-and-home split against the San Antonio Rampage last week. Iowa has the third-worst powerplay in the AHL this season, converting at just a 10.7% rate, but has the AHL’s best penalty-kill rate at 89.8%. Colton Beck and Pat Cannone lead the Wild in scoring, while Niklas Svedberg has started every game so far this season in net for Iowa, posting a .904 save percentage and a 2.84 Goals Against Average.
Getting over the odd start time will be a challenge for both squads, but having home-ice for the Wild may make the change easier to deal with. If the IceHogs can get off to a fast start with the late-morning puck drop and force the Wild to play at their pace early on, Rockford should be able to avoid the first three-game skid of the season.
Friday vs. San Antonio Rampage
Coming home on Friday for the IceHogs will be a good change of pace after the early start on Thursday, getting some extra rest before getting back to a normal schedule for the 7pm CT puck drop against the San Antonio Rampage. Friday night’s game will be the first of six between the IceHogs and the Pacific Division Rampage.
Sitting third in the Pacific Division, the Rampage are coming off of a loss at the hands of the Grand Rapids Griffins on Wednesday afternoon, and are 7-3-1, 15 points (.682 pt %). The Rampage are led in scoring by Andrew Agozzino and rookie Klim Kostin. But, the IceHogs will be facing a familiar foe on the Rampage as former Milwaukee Admirals forward Vladislav Kamenev joined San Antonio as a part of the Matt Duchene trade between the Colorado Avalanche, Nashville Predators, and Ottawa Senators. The Rampage have the AHL’s sixth-worst powerplay at just 12.5% success rate and a penalty-kill that ranks 11th in the league at an 84.5% kill rate.
Having the extra rest between the Wild game and Friday night’s contest will be beneficial to the IceHogs against a Rampage team that would have a full day off between games. The addition of Kamenev to the Rampage makes them an even more potent offense and the IceHogs will be tested defensively.
Saturday at Milwaukee Admirals
To close out the hectic weekend on Saturday, the IceHogs face the Milwaukee Admirals for what seems like the 88th time this season. Really it is just the fifth time, but for being the IceHogs’ 14th game of the year, that is a bit high.
The previous four match-ups between the two teams has given the Admirals three wins and a 15-12 scoring advantage with Rockford’s lone win coming on Oct. 21. As mentioned before, the Admirals will be without Vladislav Kamenev, but are still led offensively by Emil Pettersson, Harry Zolnierczyk, and rookie Tyler Kelleher.
The Admirals are coming off of a win over the Chicago Wolves on Wednesday and sit atop the Central Division, 7-4-0 14 points (.636 pt %), tied with Rockford as of Wednesday. Milwaukee boasts the AHL’s 13th best powerplay with a 17.5% success rate and the league’s fourth best penalty-kill with a 87.0% kill rate.
The familiarity with the Admirals should make for a highly intense game, but coming off back-to-back games, the IceHogs will need to muster up enough energy from the start to get Milwaukee off their game.
Hinostroza earning a shot with Blackhawks
Aside from looking ahead at this weekend’s action, the IceHogs have been lead so far by the offensive skill of Vince Hinostroza. Through the first 11 games of the season, Hinostroza is playing at a point per game pace with 11 points (4G,7A) and is second on the team in shots on goal with 31. In his career, Hinostroza has 71 points (25G, 46A) in 97 games with the IceHogs and 14 points (6G, 8A) in 56 games in the NHL with the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Bartlett, Illinois native and former sixth round pick by the Blackhawks was looked at as the very last player on the cut line at the end of training camp in the fall and has since established himself as the top player on the IceHogs roster this season. While the Blackhawks lineup has been free of major injury so far this season, it is far from perfect or from needing a fresh face to inject some pace or just a new look. Aside from the opening night 10-1 drubbing of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Blackhawks offense has been towards the bottom of the league in goal production.
The prospect of the Blackhawks re-calling Hinostroza up could give Chicago a boost of speed and finishing ability in a bottom-six role. The problem then lies in who would be out of the Blackhawks lineup? Tanner Kero has been a healthy-scratch for the majority of the season and could be an option. More likely, though, the odd man out could be rookie Alex DeBrincat. Since the start of the offseason, DeBrincat has been touted as the next best thing in the Blackhawks organization and at times this summer he did look the part. At other times, far from it.
From the start to the season he has had at the NHL level, DeBrincat has been ‘fine.’ He has not looked out of place in the NHL, but being just ‘fine’ is not what the Blackhawks need from him at this point. Much like the organization did with Nick Schmaltz last season when he didn’t get off to the start the Blackhawks had hoped for, the IceHogs could be a landing spot for DeBrincat to find confidence playing at the pro level and finding his game and pace. If the move would be made by Chicago, Hinostroza should be the beneficiary and could slot into a third-line role as a wing. With the Joel Quenneville line-blender already getting a workout, the Blackhawks could be in line for a call-up candidate soon and Hinostroza has made a strong case to be the first of the 2017-18 season.
UPDATE:
The IceHogs announced on Wednesday afternoon that Robin Norell and Nathan Noel had been re-assigned to the ECHL’s Indy Fuel. Norell has skated in two games with the IceHogs this season while Noel is yet to play in a game in 2017-18 after dealing with a leg injury over the summer.