Early Scoring Not Enough as Moose Claw Back

Winnipeg, MB- The Rockford IceHogs (22-22-3-1) attacked early Saturday afternoon, but four goals within a five minute span secured a 5-3 win for the Manitoba Moose (29-17-2-1) at Canada Life Centre.

It was the IceHogs who jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. Forward Josiah Slavin put the Hogs on the board when he put in a shot off the pass of forward Michal Teply below the goal line.

Later in the period forward Lukas Reichel scored his team-leading 16^th goal of the season with the help of forwards Brett Connolly and Mike Hardman. With three Moose defending him, Connolly was able to free up the puck and get it to Hardman who flung off a pass to Reichel from the right corner to give Rockford a 2-0 lead at 7:19 in the opening frame.

But with just 45 seconds left in the period, Manitoba forward C.J. Suess put a one-timer past IceHogs goaltender Arvid Soderblom to make it 2-1.

The IceHogs continued their pace in the first half of the second period. Defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk extended Rockford’s lead with a shot from the blue line to make it 3-1 at 5:16 in the period. The Brandon, MB native scored his sixth goal of the season in front of a large crowd of family and friends in the building to see him today.

Then at 18:18 Manitoba capitalized on the man-advantage when Moose forward David Gustafsson put one past Soderblom’s right shoulder to make it a 3-2 game.

Just 42 seconds later Moose defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic scored right off of the draw to tie the game 3-3.

It was then all Manitoba in the third period. 35 seconds into the closing frame forward Jeff Malott scored on a rebound to put the Moose up 4-3. Just a few minutes later, forward Austin Poganski found the bank of the net at 3:11 to put Manitoba up 5-3.

Rockford now returns to the states but continues on with road matchups starting with a stop in Milwaukee on Friday, March 11 at 7:00 p.m. From there the IceHogs will head to Cleveland to take on the Monsters on Sunday, March 13 at 2:00 p.m. and Tuesday, March 15 at 6:00 p.m. The next IceHogs home game won’t come until Saturday, March 19 when Rockford takes on Grand Rapids at 6:00 p.m.

Listen to action on the IceHogs Broadcast Network presented by BMO Harris Bank! Tune in from your favorite device, at home or on the road at IceHogs.com and on the IceHogs app! Fans can also tune in on all of Mid-West Family’s local stations including 104.9 The X, B103, 95.3 The Bull, and Rockford Greatest Hits 100.5 and featured on Rock River Current.