Rockford, IL - Less than 24 hours after a thrilling 3-2 overtime win in their home opener, the Rockford IceHogs hit the road to battle the Iowa Wild. Rockford posted a 7-5 record against the Wild last season, ending the season series with three consecutive wins. The IceHogs and Wild will drop the puck Casey's Center at 5:00 p.m. 

Three Things To Know:

OT Thriller: The IceHogs earned their first win of the season in their season opener with a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the the Milwaukee Admirals. Rockford opened the scoring with a 4-on-4 goal from Brett Seney at 13:49 of the opening period. After the Admirals tallied back-to-back goals to take the lead, Jackson Cates tied the game with less than three minutes left in regulation to send the game into overtime. The IceHogs would claim the extra point when Samuel Savoie snapped the puck past goaltender Matt Murray at 1:38 of the overtime period. Drew Commesso picked up his first win of the year making 35 saves on 37 shots faced.  

Into The Wild: The IceHogs have taken the season series against the Wild the last two seasons, going 7-5 overall and 3-3 in Des Moines last season. The 2025-26 season series opens with three games at the Casey's Center before the Wild make their first trip to the BMO Center on Feb. 6.  Iowa began their season last night, hosting the Chicago Wolves. Chicago took  a 4-1 victory using two power play goals to take down Iowa. 

Midseason Form: Saturday's contest felt more like a playoff game with the IceHogs and Admirals battling in the season opener. Tensions boiled over when Connor Mylymok dropped the gloves in his Rockford debut against Kyle Marino in the first period. The two tried to spar last week in the preseason finale but were stopped by the officials. While that was the only fight of the night, the two rivals did not shy away physical play as both teams drew two roughing penalties and countless after-the-whistle scrums. Rockford generated two power play chances and came close to finding the back of the net when Aidan Thompson beat Murray but rang the shot off the crossbar on the power play in the middle period. While Rockford was unable to score a power play tally, head coach Jared Nightingale was happy with the looks they were able to generate in the season opener. 

Heard It Here First:

Nightingale on power play chances:

I thought that second unit had a really good in-zone time. You don't always measure that on if you score or not,

Nightingale on the overtime winner:

They had the puck for the start of it there. We did a good job of containing being on the defensive side... We were able to sustain some o-zone time, we had some smart changes and then Savvy made a heck of a shot 

2025-26 Matchups:

Rockford is back home on Friday, Oct. 17 with a 7:00 p.m. start hosting the Texas Stars. It's a $2 Beer and a Screw City Night at the BMO Center with tickets available at https://icehogs.com/tickets.