Hogs battle back from 2-0 third period deficit

Milwaukee, Wis.- Sporting a mean mustache for Movember, Rockford IceHogs veteran center Jeff Taffe helped lead an IceHogs 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Milwaukee Admirals on Wednesday night at the Bradley Center

With Hannu Toivonen on the bench for the extra attacker, Brandon Pirri won a key face-off late in the third frame in the offensive zone. Igor Makarov on the right wing fired a perfect feed to Taffe in front of the Admirals net and the center tipped in the equalizer at 18:51 to send the game to overtime.

Neither team scored in the OT, so for the third time this season Rockford went to a shootout. Tied 3-3 in round five, Taffe ended the contest with his first shootout goal of the season.

Jamie Lundmark gave Milwaukee a first period lead. After a Rockford icing, the Admirals won the offensive zone face-off and Landmark knocked in a Teemu Laakso rebound off the back half wall past Toivonen at 13:32.

Then at 15:05 Aaron Johnson finished off a Milwaukee rush when he knocked in an Andreas Thuresson rebound at 15:05 for a 2-0 Admirals advantage at the first intermission.

After a scoreless second period Rockford got a goal back in the third on the power play. Kyle Beach smacked in a Ben Smith pass past Mark Dekanich at 5:05 reducing the IceHogs deficit to 2-1.

Rockford was outshot 24-22 in the contest and Toivonen made 22 saves to earn the win. Rockford went 1-5 on the power while the Admirals went 0-4.

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.