Admirals drop 3-2 decision to Rockford

ROCKFORD -- The Rockford IceHogs continued its dominance over the Milwaukee Admirals with a 3-2 win Sunday in Rockford, IL.

The IceHogs improved to 7-1-0-1 against Milwaukee this season and moved to within one point of the Admirals in the Western Conference playoff race. The loss was Milwaukee’s third in a row. The Admirals have now lost their last six against Rockford (0-5-0-1) scoring just seven goals.

Milwaukee made it interesting by scoring two goals in the final 4:04, but a boarding penalty by Taylor Beck with 59 seconds to play killed the rally.

Down 3-0, Beck got the Admirals on the board with his 12th goal of the season at 15:56. Chris Mueller won the faceoff to Jani Lajunen in the IceHogs left circle. Lajunen fired a pass to Beck who redirected it past Hutton.

The Admirals got within one with 2:01 to play with a power play goal by Mueller. Victor Bartley passed the puck to Beck behind the IceHogs net. He fed Mueller at the left post for his 26th goal of the season

The IceHogs started the scoring with a power play goal at 13:06 of the first period. Marc-Olivier Vallerand passed from the slot to the left corner for Jeremy Morin. Morin fed a pass to Ryan Stanton at the right point. His long shot found its way through traffic and into the net for his second goal of the season.

Rockford took a 2-0 lead just one minute into the second period. Byron Froese received a pass in the left circle from Chris DiDomenico. Froese’s slapshot was blocked by Admirals defenseman Scott Ford. Ford didn’t see which direction the puck bounced. It came back to Froese who slid a pass to a wide-open Brandon Svendsen on the right post for a tap-in goal.

The Icehogs scored another early goal in the third period when Rob Flick banged in a rebound of a Wade Brookbank shot for his third goal of the season at 2:24.

Rockford outshot the Admirals 36-26 in the game. After two periods, the IceHogs held a 28-13 advantage in shots on goal.

The Milwaukee Admirals hit the road for a game Friday, Mar. 16 at Lake Erie and an afternoon game in Toronto the next day. The team returns to the Bradley Center Friday, Mar. 23 to host Hamilton at 7 pm.