Hamilton, Ont.- Hamilton has been a tough
place to play for the Rockford IceHogs, and the trend continued on Friday night
as the Hogs dropped a 3-1 contest to the Bulldogs.
Rockford got
off to a quick start and took the early lead just 1:53 into the game. Shawn
Lalonde fired a shot at the Hamilton
net that Bulldogs' netminder Robery Mayer kicked away, but Ben Smith was there
to clean up the rebound to put the Hogs up 1-0. The goal tied Smith with Martin
St. Pierre for the team-lead with 14 goals.
The IceHogs were about to skate into the first intermission up by a goal but Hamilton got on the board
just as the horn sounded. Patrick Holland tipped a Gabriel Dumont
shot past Alec Richards to light the lamp just as time expired and tied the
game at 1-1.
In the second, a Hamilton
power-play goal put the Bulldogs out front. Frederick St. Denis' point shot was
redirected past Richards by Dumont at 17:11
for his tenth goal of the season.
Olivier Fortier padded the Bulldogs lead with his first goal of the season at
5:51 in the third period and pushed the score to 3-1. Then, Mayer and the Dogs
defense held Rockford
in check the rest of the way to hand the Hogs the loss. The loss dropped the
IceHogs all-time record at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton to 2-8-0-0.
Rockford failed
to convert in all three of their power play chances while the Bulldogs cashed
in on one of their five opportunities.
Richards was tagged with the loss, stopping 25 of the 28 shots he faced. Mayer
picked up his seventh win of the season allowing just one goal on Rockford's 36 shots.
