Rockford's Comeback Effort Comes Up Just Short

ROCKFORD, Ill. – Dylan McLaughlin scored late and Jacob Nilsson added a goal, but the Rockford IceHogs couldn’t come up with the equalizer as the Chicago Wolves took home a 3-2 win at BMO Harris Bank Center on Sunday afternoon.

With 7:24 left in regulation and the IceHogs down by two, Tyler Sikura won a faceoff to the right of Wolves goaltender, Oscar Dansk, and Joseph Cramarossa tapped the puck back to McLaughlin. McLaughlin spun inside the blue line and floated a wrister from the point that caromed off a Chicago defender and into the cage to pull the Hogs within 3-2.

Dansk shut the door after that, though, and the Wolves escaped with the victory for just their first triumph over the IceHogs in six games this season.

Rockford originally opened scoring 6:36 into the first period when MacKenzie Entwistle powered a pass through two Wolves and onto the stick of Nilsson, who collected his own rebound below the goal line and banked the puck off of Dansk to make it 1-0.

However, Chicago netted three straight after that, with Dylan Coghlan and Valentin Zykov scoring in the second frame and Tye McGinn adding one early in the third to pull away 3-1.

GAME NOTES:

Brandon Hagel picked up an assist tonight against the Wolves…He now has points in four straight games against Chicago and five of six overall matchups in the 2019-20 series.

Jacob Nilsson netted the opening goal of the game…The marker snapped Nilsson’s 15-game scoring drought and was his first tally since Nov. 26 at San Antonio.

The IceHogs snapped their franchise-record win streak in their series against the Wolves at five consecutive victories following tonight’s loss…The five straight wins against an opponent are the fourth-most against any AHL team in franchise history.