Hagel Nets Teddy Bear Goal, but Ads Cruise to 5-2 Victory
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Sunday, December 22
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ROCKFORD IL. – Brandon Hagel scored a goal in the first period to unleash a flurry of teddy bears on Teddy Bear Toss night, but it was all Milwaukee from there as the Admirals coasted to a 5-2 win over the Rockford IceHogs Saturday night at the BMO Harris Bank Center.
IceHogs Highlights; 12/7/19 vs. Milwaukee
The Admirals netted the game’s first goal 4:08 into the opening frame when Lukas Craggs beat IceHogs netminder, Kevin Lankinen, for the first goal of his AHL career.
However, just under two minutes later, Matthew Highmore disrupted a play inside Rockford’s blue line to spring Hagel on a break the other way. Hagel turned on the afterburners, blew by a Milwaukee defender and shelfed a snap shot over Grosenick’s shoulder to even the score and trigger the tossing of 4,369 stuffed animals onto the ice.
With the goal, Hagel now leads the team with seven tucks over his last 16 games sine Oct. 30.
Nearing the second intermission, though, Steven Santini notched his first of the season to put the Admirals back on top, 2-1.
Both Tommy Novak and Mathieu Oliver lit the lamp for the visiting team in the second period to increase the score to 4-1. Anthony Richard then added to the Admirals’ lead 3:18 into the final 20 to put the game out of the Hogs’ reach.
Philipp Kurashev potted his third of the campaign with 3:53 remaining in the third to bring Rockford within three goals, but it was too little, too late as the clock ran out on Rockford’s comeback effort.
Game Notes:
Brandon Hagel scored the Teddy Bear Toss goal tonight, beating Troy Grosenick at 18:57 in the first period...The IceHogs collected 4,369 stuffed animals for this year's event and have donated roughly 43,000 stuffed toys all-time for the annual initiative.
With his goal tonight, Hagel has notched points in 10 of his last 16 games since Oct. 30...Hagel is the lone rookie in the Western Conference to have not gone pointless in back-to-back games since Oct. 30 (minimum eight games played).
Tonight's loss snapped a season high-tying five-game home winning streak...Rockford also won five straight home games from Oct. 18 - Nov. 6.
The IceHogs held Milwaukee's top-ranked power-play unit to 0-for-1 on the man-advantage Saturday...Rockford has now killed 12 of the last 13 opposing power plays