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Icehogs Complete Comeback to Stun griffins in Overtime 6-5
Grand Rapids surrenders another lead in dramatic fashion...
By Jason Kasiorek
www.griffinscentral.com
October 27, 2012
For the second game in a row, the hometown Griffins jumped out to a lead early, only to give up a string of unanswered goals and end up with another loss. Frankie Pare (3), Gustav Nyquist (4) and Trevor Parkes (2) staked Grand Rapids to 2-0 and 3-1 leads and looked to be in for smooth sailing. Then Rockford struck for three unanswered goals in about a ten minute span to take the lead. The Griffins tied it up twice but could not get another lead and eventually fell in overtime. Brendan Smith (1) and Tomas Tatar (3) also scored for Grand Rapids which earned its first point at home. Jordan pearce remains winless after stopping 23 of 29 shots on the night.
The Griffins opened the scoring early, just over a minute into the game. Pare backed into the slot and rifled a shot in past Hutton high glove side. Nyquist made it 2-0 when he split the defense and went in alone on Hutton. The slippery Swede dipped a shoulder and put a bullet in the net glove side. Raedeke got tossed out of a face off and Grant came in. The feisty winger lost the face off and tried to jump into the slot which caused him to screen Pearce and Smiths redirection found its way into the Grand Rapids net glove side. Shots on Goal: GR 10 - Roc 8.
Parkes at the net redirected a dribbling puck past Hutton to restore the two goal lead. Tatar and Nyquist had a dangerous two-on-one but Tatar fanned on the shot. Kruger cut the lead to one when he snuck in back door and buried a cross ice feed for his third of the year. Shots on Goal: GR 13 - Roc 8.
Hayes capitalized on a Griffins turnover and had a breakaway from center ice. He did not miss, freezing Pearce and then depositing the puck behind him, stick-side, as he skated by. The IceHogs got another on the next shift from Beach to take their first lead of the game. Smith snuck up the gut on the powerplay and smoked a pass from Tatar under Sutton to tie the game at four. The tie was short-lived however as just three minutes later Shaw notched a powerplay marker to regain the lead for Rockford. Pearce came out on the Powerplay and fired a long lead pass up the ice for a scoring chance, but it was picked off by the player coming out of the box. Tatar knotted the score at five late in the period on the powerplay. He was camped out in front and converted an Andersson pass for his third of the year. Shots on Goal: GR 10 - Roc 12.
It didn't take long into the extra session for Rockford to settle the score. Just 58 seconds a bad bounce led to Pirri burying the puck behind Pearce from right onto the doorstep for a 6-5 IceHogs win. Shots on Goal: GR 0 - Roc 1. For the Game: GR 33 - Roc 29.
Lines:
Hoggan - Ferraro - Aubry
Pare - Sheahan - Jurco
Grant - Raedeke - Parkes
Tatar - Andersson - Nyquist
Pairings:
Billins - Evans/Paetsch
Evans - Lashoff
Almquist - Smith
Starter: Pearce
Backup: McCollum
Scratches:
Callahan
Nicastro
Fournier
PP:
Tatar - Andersson - Nyquist
Smith - Billins
Hoggan - Ferraro - Pare
Almquist - Lashoff
PK:
Raedeke - Parkes
Evans - Lashoff
Andersson/Aubry - Ferraro
Paetsch - Smith
Observations:
Another lead surrendered and unable to hold on long enough to win. Tonights game was not killed by penalties like last night, but sloppy play and turnovers did them in nonetheless.
Tough to single people out in a game like this, but Sheahan was involved offensively and showed some chemistry with Pare.
Tatar definitely is off to a good start and he and Nyquist are piling up points.
Still impressed with Billins, they just keep throwing him out there, and he belongs.
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