Admirals edged by IceHogs in shootout, 2-1

ROCKFORD, IL -- Goalie Jeremy Smith stopped 34 shots but it wasn’t enough as the Rockford IceHogs defeated the Milwaukee Admirals Friday night, April 13th in a shootout, 2-1.

The loss dropped the Admirals record to 2-6-0-4 against the IceHogs in 2011-2012, 0-4-0-2 at Rockford’s home rink. Rockford finished 10-1-0-1 against the Admirals.

While Smith was very busy, IceHogs netminder Alexander Salak saw only 16 shots on goal to earn the win.

Kyle Wilson scored Milwaukee’s lone goal in the shootout. Rockford’s last two shooters, Matt Fornataro and Peter LeBlanc, scored the IceHogs goals to seal the win.

The Admirals scored the first goal of the game at 18:04 of the second period. Wilson carried the puck to the IceHogs blue line on the right wing. Before crossing, he stopped and sent a rinkwide pass to Ryan Thang. Thang skated into the offensive zone and set up for a slapshot at the left circle. Instead of shooting, he slapped a pass to Michael Latta streaking toward the right post. Latta tipped the puck into the net for his 14th goal of the season on just Milwaukee’s 12th shot of the game.

The IceHogs knotted the game at 4:30 of the third period. A turnover led to a breakaway for Rockford’s leading scorer Brandon Pirri. Smith stopped the shot and it trickled to the left post. As he tried to cover it, it was knocked loose to Phillip Danault. Danault’s shot was blocked, but Rob Flick followed to put the puck into the empty net for his seventh goal of the season.

Milwaukee concludes its seven-game road trip with a visit to Chicago Saturday. The next, and final, Admirals home game of the season is Sunday, Apr 15 as the Charlotte Checkers visit the Bradley Center at 3pm.