Rockford down 2-0 in West Division Finals, play two at home this week

Rosemont, Ill.- The Rockford IceHogs came within a goal of tying the game, but the Chicago Wolves have put in four goals in the third period to win 7-3 as the IceHogs fall to 0-6 in the Allstate Arena.

The score was 3-1 in the at the end of two, but Colin Stuart put the Wolves up by three with a short-handed goal on a breakaway at 1:39 in the third with an assist from Joel Kwiatkowski making it a three-goal deficit for Rockford.

At 1:39, Petri Kontiola finally broke Rockford's power-play drought after 32 attempts dating back to the April 12 game against the Wolves at the Rockford MetroCentre to make the score 4-2. Bryan Bickell and Kris Versteeg had the helpers.

Then Bickell closed the gap further with his second marker of the Calder Cup playoffs at 5:03 with helpers from Jim Fahey and Mike Blunden.

But the Wolves came back with a goal from Bryan Little at 9:19 with a helper from Arturs Kulda to make the score 5-3. Rockford never recovered from the Little marker. The Wolves then followed it it with markers from Boris Valabik at 12:24 and Darren Haydar on the power play at 15:53 to put the final nails in the coffin.

In the second, defenseman Jim Fahey scored his first goal since March 4, 2005 to make the score 3-1 at 11:43 in the second period with assists from Blunden and Bickell. At the time of his last marker, Fahey played for the now-defunct Cleveland Barons.

In the first, the Wolves' Joe Motzko slipped the puck past Corey Crawford for the game's first score at 5:39 as a Wolves man-advantage was ending. Motzko's goal came with assists from Bryan Little and Bryan Fahey.

Haydar blasted the puck past Crawford at 7:17 on the advantage to make the score 2-0 with helpers from Kwiatkowski and Jason Krog.

At 18:05, Colin Stuart beat Jack Skille to a loose puck and dished it to Steve Martins to put the Wolves up 3-0. Andre Deveaux also had a helper.

Crawford allowed seven goals for the first time in the 2007-08 season. He had 31 saves in the losing effort. Ondrej Pavelec had 42 saves in the win.

The IceHogs finished 1-for-6 on the power play compared to 2-for-7 for the Wolves.

Next Home Game: Sunday, May 4 vs. Chicago Wolves. Game 3 of the West Division Finals. The puck drops at 4:05 p.m. Rockford and Chicago move the best-of-seven series to the MetroCentre for Games 3 and 4 starting on Sunday as the IceHogs look to even the West Division Finals series.