Brian Connelly’s power play goal was the game winner as the Rockford IceHogs defeated the Milwaukee Admirals, 4-2, at Rockford Saturday night.

 

Connelly grabbed a deflected puck in the bottom of the left circle and fired a shot over Milwaukee goalie Chet Pickard at 9:17 of the third period. It was Rockford’s only power play goal in ten tries against Milwaukee this night.

 

Pickard stopped 16 of 19 shots in the loss.

 

Rockford scored twice in the first period on backdoor passes. Former Badgers forward Jack Skille used his speed to carry the puck along the right wing boards into the Milwaukee zone. As he got to the bottom of the right circle, he fed a pass through the crease to Kyle Greentree who converted the goal at 4:55 of the first period.

 

The IceHogs second goal was scored when Connelly whipped a pass from the left corner to the right post for a Danny Bois tip-in at 11:13 of the first period.

 

Milwaukee got on the board with its first short-handed tally of the season. The puck, traveling along the rim behind Rockford goalie Alec Richards, hit a seam and bounced in front of the net to Cal O’Reilly. O’Reilly backhanded the puck into the net for his seventh goal of the season at 1:03 of the second period.

 

The Admirals special teams got the second goal, too. While on the power play, Mike Santorelli lifted the rebound from a Hugh Jessiman shot over Richards for his ninth goal of the season, third on the power play. The goal, scored at 5:52 of the second period, was assisted by Jessiman and Robert Dietrich.

 

Rob Klinkhammer scored an empty-net goal with 16 seconds left to complete the scoring.

 

The Admirals battle the Grand Rapids Griffins Monday night at 7:00 pm at the Bradley Center. The first 5,000 fans will take home a Potawatomi Bingo Casino Cowbell and, inhonor of cowbell night, the Wisconsin State Fair Mooing Champion Anthony Capla will show off his skills.  In addition, before leaving for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the United States Women’s Olympic Curling Team will be in attendance to sign autographs and they will also put on a demonstration during the second intermission. Tickets for the game can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or online at www.ticketmaster.com.  Groups of ten or more can receive $2 off the face value of each ticket by calling the Admirals office at (414) 227-0550.