IceHogs sink NAds 4-0

The Rockford IceHogs in action at the MetroCentre last night crushed the Norfolk Admirals. The 4-0 loss was the first meeting between the two clubs. The Norfolk Admirals were the AAA affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks prior to the 2007-8 season. The IceHogs are the current AAA affiliate of the Blackhawks.

Michael Blunden had seven shots on goal for the IceHogs, followed by Tim Brent and Rob Klinkhammer at five each. Blunden and Brent scored a goal and two assists each in the contest. Tim Hambly also had two assists. Jean-Claude Sawyer and Petri Kontiola had a power play goal each. Brent’s goal was a short-handed goal.

Antti Niemi stopped 26 shots for the shutout.

For Norfolk, Mike McKenna stopped 39 shots on goal for the loss. Jamie Heward had four shots on goal, Brandon Segal and Paul Szczechura had three shots each.

The IceHogs lead the Western Conference with 12 points in seven games. They are tied for first place in the league with the Hershey Bears.

Niemi is third among AHL goalies, with a 95.3 save percentage.

Justin Fletcher to IceHogs

The Chicago Blackhawks announced Justin Fletcher, a blueliner, has been assigned to the Rockford IceHogs in a minor league trade between the Hawks and the Tampa Bay Lighting in which David Koci was assigned to the Norfolk Admirals from the Rockford IceHogs.

Fletcher comes to Rockford after playing in 39 games with Norfolk this season. The Maryville, Ill. native has a goal and four assists on the season.

Koci has scored only one point in 86 games in the American Hockey League and the NHL according to the Internet hockey data base.

In addition, Kris Versteeg and Niklas Hjalmarsson were called up to the Blackhawks from the IceHogs.

Moose stall. Wolves win 5-2

North Division leader met West Division leader, with the West Division Chicago Wolves coming out on top 5-2 over the Manitoba Moose at the Allstate Arena Wednesday night. Chicago was aided by a sputtering Moose offense and the failure of the opposition’s league leading penalty kill to show up on the ice, as well as outstanding goal tending by Fred Brathwaite.

The Chicago win comes with just seven games left in the Chicago season. The win puts the Wolves two points behind the Moose for the West Conference title. It also comes a night after the San Antonio Rampage defeated the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights, and on the night the Milwaukee Admirals lost to the Grand Rapids Griffins. Those two West Division losses help the Wolves secure their West Division first place standing. But the Wolves cannot relax yet.

The Moose, who at one point in the season won 17 of 18 games, are in a mini-slump, scoring only nine times in the last nine games. That was brought home Tuesday before the team’s loss to the Milwaukee Admirals when Coach Scott Arniel benched the team’s leading scorer, Jesse Schultz due to the winger’s “one-dimensional” play. Schultz had not scored a goal in 13 outings with the Moose. The ploy must have worked, as Schultz was back on the ice on Wednesday, with three shots on goal and a plus 1 rating.

In the first frame, a 5 on 3 power play resulted in a shot by Brad Moran that looked certain, but Brathwaite somehow stopped it and the Wolves were able to kill the penalty off. The Moose scored first on their former International Hockey League rivals, Michael Keane put a puck through the legs of Nathan Oystrick, picked it up after skating around Oystrick and shot past Brathwaite. Less than five minutes later, Chicago was given its own power play. The Chicago power play pitted one of the league’s best power play units against one of the league’s best penalty kill units. The power play ended with Jordan LaVallee popping the puck into the air, it landed on Drew MacIntyre’s skate and bounced in for the goal. End of period 1-1.

In the first minute of the second frame, Jason Krog put a shot from near the goal line that somehow found twine. 2-1 Wolves. Three minutes later Nathan Smith, just out of the penalty box, replied for the Moose with his own slap shot, making the game 2-2. With less than 90 seconds to go in the period, Brett Sterling was sprung from the sin bin. Exiting the box, he grabbed the puck on a fore check and passed it to Cory Larose. Larose threaded it through to Colin Stuart who one-timed it into the top of the net. Wolves 3-2.

In the final frame, the Moose made only five shots on goal. The Wolves Andre Deveaux was alone with the puck in front of the Moose crease. His shot went high. A penalty he drew led to another scoring opportunity. Off the resulting face-off, Jason Krog shot a blast that deflected off of defender Keane and through MacIntyre’s legs. Wolves 4-2. In the final second a Sterling shot rebounded to Darren Haydar who lit the final lamp. Final 5-2.

Brathwaite took the win with 26 saves. MacIntyre received the loss with 31 saves. Chicago’s power play was 2 for 4 on the night.

“We were sloppy,” Keane told the Winnipeg Sun, “we’re not getting the job done.”

Wolves coach John Anderson highlighted the game saying, “we played smart and didn’t make mistakes.”

The Wolves lead the West Division by three points over the Knights, with the Knights having three games in hand. Immediately behind Omaha is the Milwaukee Admirals, five points behind the Wolves. The Wolves face the Admirals on Friday night at the Milwaukee Bradley Center. The Admirals have dominated the series against the Wolves this season. A win would be a surprise and would be a key game in the season.

Wolves fans may be cheering for Iowa and Manitoba this weekend. Fourth place Iowa could firm up its place in the West, it holds its playoff spot by only two points against the Peoria Rivermen. Iowa plays Omaha Friday and Milwaukee Saturday. Manitoba plays Omaha Saturday in Nebraska.

Shots on Goal

The Rockford IceHogs MetroCentre deal continues to dominate hockey discussion in Rockford. One of the local newspapers, the Rockford Register Star, has editorialized in favor of the $23 million plan and has backed its editorial with heavy coverage.

Outside of Rockford my attention has been on Norfolk. The owners of the Norfolk Admirals, one of the two possible franchises that are most likely to move to Rockford, have said the team will stay in Norfolk next year, whether or not there is an affiliation with the Chicago Blackhawks. That would leave just one American Hockey League franchise available in the most likely scenario: the former Edmonton Road Runner franchise, owned by the Edmonton Oilers.

The coach of the Rockford hockey team warned the MetroCentre that they had underestimated the cost of acquiring the AHL franchise. If the number of possible teams declines, the price should go up. It sounds like the coach knows more about business and hockey than the managers of the MetroCentre.

The Norfolk Admirals, meantime, are in third place in the East Division, within three points of the Calder Cup champions Hershey Bears, the division leader. The Admirals were swept by the Bears in the 2006 Eastern Division semifinals. It is early in the season to make predictions, especially about a division that rarely play this far west. Yet, this seems to be the strongest Norfolk team this decade.

A cynic might ask why the Blackhawks are considering moving a successful program. The answer is that the only part of the current IceHogs organization that will stay is the front office. There is virtually no chance the current roster would be present next season.

And, making national sports news, Enver Lisin, a troubled rookie in the Phoenix Coyotes organization, was suspended for not reporting to San Antonio. Lisin, who has a +/- of –18, instead flew home to Russia where he is expected to play for Ak Bars Kazan in the Russian League.

This is not the first time NHL players have taken a hit rather than play in the AHL. And, the loss of Lisin is probably not troubling for the Phoenix organization, given his terrible record. However, the word on the street is that the San Antonio club is mean.

That sounds like an opponent talking, but that comes from the inside, team mates talking about team mates. Mean. That’s a description that sounds appropriate describing a third-grader, not professional hockey athletes. Something really smells in the Phoenix organization’s Texas crew. Lots of money in the off-season has had virtually no effect. The NHL side of the organization is just as disappointing.

Finally, the Chicago Wolves play the 500th home game in franchise history against Omaha this week. Starting in the International Hockey League, the Wolves and the IHL were part of a strategy to challenge the NHL. Today the IHL is a memory. But the Chicago Wolves have one of the highest attendance figures in the AHL year after year, while downtown the Blackhawks have one of the lowest attendance figures in the NHL. The Wolves broadcast every game on cable, the Blackhawks only broadcast selected home games, sell outs and away games.

The Wolves have played in post-season every year but one since their founding. The Blackhawks regularly play golf starting in mid-April.

Finally, this week, Forbes magazine estimated that Bill Wirtz’s Blackhawks was among only three NHL teams that lost value since the lockout season. In Rosemont, Wolves owner Don Levin is rumored to be among the possible bidders for the Chicago Cubs. Clearly, the Wolves have been successful in challenging the Blackhawks. Sadly, the two teams will never meet on the ice. With three of the top scorers in the AHL, I have no doubt who would win such a match.

Go Wolves!