IceHogs Drop High-Scoring Affair, 7-5 to the Griffins

Rockford, IL. – The Rockford IceHogs had a comeback come up short on Saturday night inside the BMO Center, falling 7-5 to the Grand Rapids Griffins. Zach Sanford recorded a hat trick in the losing effort, including two goals in the 3rd period.

The Griffins opened the scoring for the second-straight night with an individual effort from Amadeus Lombardi. He picked up the puck at swung into the zone before deking to his forehand.

In the middle frame, Grand Rapids extended the lead to 2-0 with an Austin Watson goal in front of the net. Rockford got on the board at 6:43 of the 2^nd thanks to Sanford’s 16^th of the season. The forward cleaned up a rebound off a Cavan Fitzgerald blast.

Minutes later, the Griffins regained the two-goal lead. After extended zone time in the Rockford end, Antti Tuomisto rocketed a shot through traffic from the blue line.

Jalen Luypen snuck in shorthanded at the start of the 3^rd period and cut into the deficit, 3-2. The Griffins immediately responded on the remainder of their power play with Lombardi’s second of the night.

On the man-advantage, Zach Sanford deflected in a Gerry Mayhew pass to bring Rockford back within one goal, 4-3.

Grand Rapids pounced for two quick ones to balloon the lead to 6-3. Emmitt Finnie beat Drew Commesso to the far side with a wrist shot, then Dominik Shine gathered in a rebound and chipped it into a wide-open net.

Rockford continued to rally and almost finished off the comeback. Gavin Hayes brought the IceHogs back 6-4 with a snipe of the shoulder of Jack Campbell. Sanford recorded the hat trick with his third of the night and with the Rockford net empty.

With the Rockford net empty again, Watson put the game on ice with the 7-5 goal in the waning moments.

Rockford is back home inside the BMO Center on Friday, Apr. 11 at 7pm CT. The Hogs take on the Roadrunners for a $2 Beer and Soft Drink Night. Click here for tickets.

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Watch and listen to every game this season on the IceHogs Broadcast Network presented by BMO! Fans can also watch every IceHogs game on AHLTV on FloHockey! AHLTV on FloHockey features live streaming of every AHL game in high definition on desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile devices by clicking here, as well as on over-the-top (OTT) platforms such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. AHLTV is also available through the official AHL mobile app for iOS or Android. Watch on WIFR-TV on 19.2, The 365 live in the Rockford market!