Rockford,
Ill. - Despite giving up an early
first period goal, the Rockford IceHogs rattled off four straight tallies on
the visiting Peoria Rivermen and captured a 4-1 victory in an Illinois Lottery
Cup tilt at the BMO
Harris Bank
Center on Friday night.
The Hogs have now won six consecutive games, tying a franchise-high in the AHL
era.
The Rivermen opened the scoring at the 3:07 mark when Mark Cundari's shot from
the blueline was initially stopped by Carter Hutton, but the puck trickled
through the Rockford
goaltender and over the goal line.
But the Hogs only let Peoria's
lead last for 5:20, as Ben Smith lit the lamp with a shot from the slot off a
tape-to-tape pass from Brandon Svendsen. Mathieu Beaudoin also assisted on the
play, starting the rush with a touch-pass to Svendsen in the defensive zone.
Less than four minutes later and on the power play, Smith picked up a rebound
off of a Brandon Pirri shot, but Jake Allen made a pad save on Smith's first
put-back attempt. The puck came right back to Smith, and he flipped it over a
sprawled out Allen, giving the Hogs the 2-1 lead with his second goal of the
night and his 17th on the season.
Rockford added
on another goal early into the second period. While on their third power play
of the contest, Pirri's cross-ice pass to Jeremy Morin was one-timed into the
back of the net, upping the Hogs advantage to 3-1.
Later in the period, Morin tallied once again, this time on a 4-on-3
man-advantage. With possession of the puck behind the net, Morin stick handled
through the barren Peoria
zone. The winger wristed a shot on net from in close that ricocheted off Allen
and into the back of the net, increasing the Hogs advantage to 4-1.
Rockford's defense and penalty kill unit held on
the rest of the way, as they killed off all seven Peoria man-advantage opportunities, including
four during the third period.
Hutton finished the night with 23 saves to earn his 21st win of the season,
while Rockford
fired 30 shots on Allen. The Hogs power-play unit finished three for six, and
has now converted on power-play goals in seven consecutive games. Pirri and
Morin each extended their point streaks to seven-straight games.
