Streak Ends in Rockford
Mar 22, 2008
Dov Grumet-Morris stopped 34 of 36 Rockford shots, but it wasn’t enough as the Rockford IceHogs snapped Milwaukee’s seven game winning streak with a 3-1 win Saturday in Rockford.
Making just his third start with Milwaukee, and second in as many days, Grumet-Morris was very sharp in the Milwaukee net.
The lone goal of the first period was scored on the power play by Milwaukee’s Bryan Schmidt. With Rockford’s leading scorer, Martin St. Pierre, in the box for roughing, the Admirals worked the puck around the perimeter before the tally. Jason Guerriero sent a pass from the right corner to Cal O’Reilly at the right circle. O’Reilly fired a pass to Schmidt on the left faceoff dot for a one-timer that beat IceHogs goalie Wade Flaherty high over his left hand. It was Schmidt’s fourth goal of the season, second on the power play.
The IceHogs tied the game on the power play at 12:40 of the second period. Petri Kontiola scored his 15th of the year to knot the game with a shot from the right faceoff dot.
With 58.1 seconds left in the second period, Rockford’s Kris Versteeg converted a 2-on-1 break by backhanding a shot past Grumet-Morris to give Rockford the lead for good.
Milwaukee had a great opportunity to tie the game with a late power play in the third period. IceHogs defenseman Kenny MacAulay went to the box with 2:48 to play with a five minute major for high sticking. Milwaukee pulled Grumet-Morris with just under 1:30 to play, but the goal came from Martin St. Pierre of Rockford with ten seconds to play. He iced the puck from inside the Rockford blue line into an empty net for a shorthanded tally.
The Admirals host Rockford Monday at 7 p.m. It’s the final meeting of the regular season between the teams.
