Gust Hat Trick Leads Way as Hogs Cruise Past Wild

Des Moines, IA— A David Gust hat trick and a multi-point game for five other players propelled the Rockford IceHogs past the Iowa Wild with a 7-4 win at Wells Fargo Arena Tuesday night.

Iowa jumped out to an early lead when forward Marco Rossi worked his way through the circle and was able to sneak it by Rockford goaltender Mitchell Weeks to make it 1-0 Wild at 3:35.

But the IceHogs quickly responded with two power play goals to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. The first one came on the Hogs’ 5-on-3 when defenseman Adam Clendening scored on a one timer to tie the game 1-1 at 16:52 in the first period.

Just under a minute later, while still on the power play, Rockford forward David Gust netted his first goal of the night to give the IceHogs the one-goal lead.

The Wild, however, answered right back in the middle frame when forward Adam Beckman capitalized on the man-advantage and tied the game 3-3 at 1:34. From there it was a back-and-forth contest.

Forward Cole Guttman scored just over a minute later at 2:37 to give Rockford a one-goal lead once again. But forward Steven Fogarty tied the game with a short-handed goal at 9:03 in the middle frame to tie the game 3-3.

But the Hogs once again had an answer when, just over 30 seconds apart, Gust netted his second of the night and defenseman Filip Roos scored in his IceHogs debut to give Rockford a 5-3 lead after two periods.

Then in the third period, Gust sealed his first ever AHL hat trick with a tally three minutes into the final frame. Later in the period Guttman scored on the power play for his second goal of the night to give the Hogs a 7-3 lead. At 11:46 Fogarty scored on the Wild power play but it wasn’t enough as Rockford went on to a 7-4 victory.

The IceHogs now return home and host the Toronto Marlies on Friday, Dec. 16 and the Hartford Wolf Pack on Saturday, Dec. 17, both games at 7 p.m.

Watch and listen to the 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 watch every IceHogs home game and select road games this season on 23.3 Circle TV and every game on AHLTV and listen 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.