I know hogs are supposed to love slop but last night’s game against the Chicago Wolves was ridiculous! The IceHogs played a very sloppy and undisciplined game and took a 6-3 beating to fall 4 points off the pace set by the Wolves in the Northwest Division.
The Wolves took an early lead when Alex Gordon scored his 3rd goal of the season at the 4:34 mark of the opening frame. Kyle Beach scored his 2nd goal of the year at 16:28 of the 1st period to tie the game at 1. Rob Flick and Phillipe Paradis assisted on Beach’s tally. It took all of 9 seconds for Adam Clendening to kill off that momentum by talking a bad holding penalty. And of course Brett Sterling converted on the power play to give the Wolves a 2-1 lead going into the first intermission.
Chicago took a stranglehold on the game with two goals in the first half of the 2nd period. Jordan Schroeder scored his 3rd goal of the year at 2:46 and Bill Sweatt added his 3rd goal at 10:08 to give the Wolves a 4-1 lead. Sweatt’s goal chased starting goalie Carter Hutton from the game and Alec Richards relieved him for the remainder of the night. Brandon Pirri scored his team high 4th goal of the year on the power play at 13:35 to make it 4-2. Marcus Kruger and Martin St. Pierre added the helpers to Pirri’s goal.
Chris Tanev’s first goal of the season restored the Wolves 3 goal lead at the 10:31 mark of the final period. Beach scored his 2nd goal of the night, an unassisted goal at 15:58 to cut the lead to 5-3. Former Blackhawk Andrew Ebbett’s 2nd goal of the year gave the Wolves a 6-3 lead at 17:31, which would end up being the final score.
If Rockford wants to complete within the AHL’s Western Conference they have to figure out how to stop their parade to the penalty box. The Hogs took 11 penalties for a total of 33 minutes. You are not going to win on any level by giving your opponent 9 power plays in the course of a game. This comes down to coaching, and Ted Dent needs to teach his team how to play a more disciplined and under control style of hockey. Dent has way too much talent on this team to struggle so I can’t help but think that his seat is getting a little warm these days.
Tonight the Lake Erie Monsters, the AHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche, come a calling. The Monsters have a record of 7-3-0-0 and are in 4th place of the Western Conference. They have played 6 of their first 10 games on the road where they are 5-1 so far, including a 2-1 win last night in Milwaukee against the Admirals. The Monsters have scored 10 power play goals in 10 games so the Hogs must avoid taking bad penalties.
Tonight is election bobblehead night at the BMO Harris Bank Center. There will be 2,000 President Obama and 2,000 Mitt Romney bobbleheads where the you cast your vote for which candidate you want. These bobbleheads have the heads of Obama and Romney on an IceHogs player’s body. No, I am not making this up. The puck will drop at 7:05 and can be seen live locally and at AHL Live or can be listened to on the IceHogs website.