IceHogs take Wolves 3-2 in shootout

The Chicago Wolves fell 3-2 in a shootout to the Rockford IceHogs in Sunday matinee action at the Allstate Arena. Wolves Joe Motzko and IceHogs Jack Skille had two goals each in the regulation periods. Skille also scored a shootout goal, along with fellow Hog Tim Brent and Wolf Junior Lessard.

Petri Kontiola panned a pass to Skille in front of the Chicago crease for the first of the goals and again from Kontiola to Skille for the second goal. Kontiola had two shots of his own on goal, while Skille and Mike Brennan had four shots on goal each. Brent and Pascal Pelletier each took three shots on Ondrej Pavelec in the contest. Brennan and Bryan Bickell received assists in the contest.

Motzko scored his second goal during a battle in the crease, picking up a rebound for the goal. Motzko, this year’s go-to guy, had seven shots on goal in the game. Illinois native Colin Stuart had six shots on goal. Jordan LaVallee, Joey Crabb, Jamie Rivers and Grant Lewis notched three shots each.

Anderson was credited with two assists in the game while Lewis and Arturs Kulda received one each.

Antti Niemi was given the win, stopping 34 shots on goal, compared to the 29 stopped by Ondrej Pavelec of the Wolves.

Boris Valabik, the third year blueliner, showed grit, working on the four successful Chicago penalty kills. The Hogs killed one power play.

The Hogs offensive posture in the PP ended up almost costing them, as there were four serious shorthanded attacks during the power play, with turnovers in the defensive zone leaving Niemi open to a quick Chicago probe. In addition, the side to side weakness of Pavelec and the poor Wolves defense in the short area in front of the goalmouth led to the two Hogs goals.

The sudden defensive end change of possessions showed Niemi to be cool under pressure, with nice pad saves and good deflections of the puck to prevent rebound opportunities.

The Hogs had a line of Brennan, Skille, Bickell, Kontiola and Jean-Claude Sawyer out for each of their goals. The Wolves defensive line was different for the two goals, but the offensive line was Motzko, Matt Anderson and Spencer Machacek.