Rosemont, Ill.- Allstate Arena has not been kind to the IceHogs this season. Two third period goals were too much to overcome as the Rockford IceHogs fell 4-2 to the Chicago Wolves on Wednesday afternoon, giving the IceHogs a 0-3-0-0 record against the Wolves in Chicago this season.
Heading into the third period tied at 2-2, Mark Mancari tallied the tie-breaking goal at 9:37 of the final frame. After a faceoff win by the IceHogs, Mancari picked up a loose puck behind the Rockford net and wrapped it past an unaware Alec Richards to give Chicago a 3-2 lead.
Just under a minute later, Mancari picked up his second goal of the night to increase the Wolves' lead to 4-2. The two third period tallies were enough as Chicago held the IceHogs the rest of the way to pick up the win.
In the opening frame Chicago jumped out to an early 1-0 lead with a power play tally from Michael Davies. Jordan Schroeder skated the puck into the Rockford zone and sent a pass for Davies to wrist in from above the far faceoff circle at 9:51.
The IceHogs responded right back to even the score at the 11:09 mark. Brian Connelly sent Brandon Pirri on a two-on-one breakaway into the Wolves zone. Pirri raced towards the net and dished the puck over for Jeremy Morin to one-time his seventh goal of the season past Matt Climie and tie the game at 1-1.
Just over three mintues later, the Wolves regained the lead when Victor Oreskovich found the back of the net. The Hogs failed to clear out a bouncing puck in front of Richards, and Oreskovich scooped in his sixth marker on the campaign to make it 2-1.
Then, 7:04 into the middle frame, Morin registered his second goal of the game to tie it back up at 2-2. Chris DiDomenico fired a shot high of the net forcing it to bounce of the back boards and straight to an open Morin. With a wide open net, Morin flipped in his eighth goal of the season.
Rockford went 0-for-3 on the man advantage, while Chicago converted on one of seven power play opportunities.
Richards made 24 saves in the loss, while Climie turned away 25 shots to earn the win.
Next Home Game: Monday, Jan. 16 vs. Texas Stars. Game time is 1:05 p.m. The IceHogs return home for the first time in more than two weeks for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. matinee game to take on the Stars for the second and final time at the BMO Harris Bank Center. The first 1,500 kids 14 and under will pick up an IceHogs Drawstring Bag courtesy of Frito Lay.
For every goal that the Rockford IceHogs score in 2011-12, IceHogs head coach Ted Dent will make a donation to children’s cancer research. BMO Harris Bank will also make a donation for every goal to the “BMO Harris Bank Goals For Grades”