Philp Tallies Twice, But Hogs Fall To Wolves
Rockford, Ill — The Rockford IceHogs (6-6-0-1) dropped a back-and-forth contest to the Chicago Wolves (5-6-1-0), falling 4-3 at the BMO Center on Friday night. Forward Luke Philp tallied his ninth and tenth goals of the season, both on the special teams to lead the Hogs offense.
Weaving through the Wolves’ defense with the Hogs down 3-2 in the third period, Philp punched in a backhanded power-play shot over the shoulder of Chicago netminder Zachary Sawchenko at 9:22 to even the score. However, after Malte Stromwall tallied at 1:51, and Nathan Sucese scored on the penalty kill for the Wolves at 11:20 in the final stanza to take the 4-3 lead, the IceHogs couldn’t complete the comeback despite going on the advantage and pulling goalie Dylan Wells in favor of the extra attacker in the last three minutes of the contest.
The IceHogs jumped to an early 1-0 lead courtesy of a one-timer blast sent down the slot by defenseman Adam Clendening for forward Buddy Robinson to tap in between the pads on Sawchenko at 2:09. Unable to control the offensive possession, the Wolves marched back with tallies from Griffin Mendel at 15:52 and Vasily Ponomarev at 17:25 on Wells and took a 2-1 edge into the first intermission.
Shorthanded and trailing at the start of the middle frame, Josiah Slavin and Philp connected to tie the contest. Finding Philp skating down the middle, Slavin pushed the puck from the right wing for Philp to fire a wrist shot over the shoulder of Sawchenko at 8:09 of the second period.
With seven power play chances, the Hogs only scored once on the advantage against the Wolves. Sawchenko marked 32 saves on the night to earn the win while Wells notched 28 saves getting tagged with the loss.
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