Rockford, Ill.- The Rockford IceHogs fell victim to the Texas Stars 4-3 in a shootout on Wednesday at the Rockford MetroCentre.
The Hogs had a chance for their second overtime win in as many games but an Evan Brophey shot rang off the post. Brandon Pirri and Kyle Beach beat Brent Krahn in the shootout but that wasn't enough as Colton Sceviour, Tomas Vincour and Mathieu Tousignant added markers to give Texas the 4-3 win in the nine round affair.
The IceHogs found themselves trailing early. A turnover inside the IceHogs defensive zone led to Cody Chupp taking possession of the puck and finding Tristan King with a pass, King shot a hard wrist shot past Hannu Toivonen at 7:48 in the first period.
Then, the IceHogs came back and tied it up at 1-1 with a power play tally, their first goal in the first period against Krahn in nine games. Defenseman Brian Connelly and Jeff Taffe were rotating the puck around when they found Pirri alone in the face-off circle. Pirri picked up the feed and buried his second goal of the season at 9:01 in the first period.
Texas took the lead back at 15:55 in the first frame when Sceviour found Aaron Gagnon along the right board. Gagnon took the pass and sent the puck to the back of the net to put the Stars up 2-1. Tousignant also chipped in with an assist.
Early in the second period, the Hogs took advantage of their third power play to knot it back up at 2-2. Ryan Potulny dished the puck to Beach behind the net. Beach then flipped it for Taffe to tap in his third goal of the season at 2:41 in the second period.
Just after time expired on the Simon Danis-Pepin high sticking penalty, the Stars were able to retain possession in the IceHogs zone. Fabion Brunnstrom received a pass just right of the net, on the goal line. He then sent a crisp one timer pass to Maxime Fortunus who placed it past Toivonen at 7:45 to go up 3-2.
The IceHogs would respond quickly, Beach worked the puck into the Stars zone, faked back to center and used the space to get to the outside of reaching Texas defender and tucked a wrist shot in on the right side of Krahn at 8:58 to tie the game at 3-3. Nick Leddy picked up an assist on the play.
The Hogs converted on 2-of-3 power play chances after coming into the game only converting in 2-of-20 man advantages at the MetroCentre. Texas was held off the board with the extra man in four chances.
Toivonen was handed the loss after turning away 28 shots and stopping 6-of-9 shots in the shootout. Krahn picked up his fourth win of the season stopping 28 IceHogs attempts and kicking away 7-of-9 chances on the shootout.
Next Home Game: Saturday, Nov. 6 vs. Manitoba Moose. Game time is slated for 7:05 p.m. The first 2,500 fans to the game will receive an IceHogs baseball cap courtesy of Pepsi, WXRX and WIFR.