Milwaukee, WI–Andreas Athanasiou scored the winner to lead the Rockford IceHogs to a 5-4 shootout win over the Milwaukee Admirals Saturday at BMO Center.
The IceHogs scored twice in the best-of-three shootout to beat the Ads in the skills competition 2-1. Cole Guttman and Athanasiou both tallied. Cal O’Reilly had Milwaukee’s lone goal in the shootout against Rockford goalie Mitchell Weeks.
The first period featured lucky bounces and power play goals for both teams as they combined for six goals. Milwaukee scored the first goal at 4:47 when he skated with the puck from the left circle into the slot and ripped a shot past IceHogs goalie Mitchell Weeks. It was Rolston’s seventh goal of the American Hockey League season and his sixth goal with the Admirals. Joakim Kemell and Chad Nychuk picked up the assists.
Rockford tied the game at 1-1 when Cavan Fitzgerald dumped the puck from the neutral zone off the left win glass. The puck took a bad hop off a stanchion and dribbled into the net past Ads goalie Magnus Chrona at 10:48.
The IceHogs stretched the lead to 2-1 when Brett Seney deflected a shot from the left wing boards past Chrona at 12:20.
Athanasiou built Rockford’s lead to 3-1 with a power play goal at 12:33 of the first period right off the face-off. That was the last shot Chrona faced for the evening as he was replaced by Ethan Haider.
Haider, who had been recalled by Milwaukee from ECHL Atlanta on Fri., Jan, 31, made his AHL debut and stopped all six Rockford shots taken against him in the first frame.
The Admirals offense started to move. The team went on the power play for the first time at 14:55 when Dmitry Kuzmin went to the box for hooking. During the power play, Kemell loaded up to shoot from the right circle. As the IceHogs raced to defend him, Kemell slid a pass through the slot to Anders Bjork and he snapped it into the goal for his third of the season at 16:14. Spencer Stastney also picked up an assist one the tally.
Milwaukee tied the game 3-3 at 19:15 of the first period when Jake Lucchini, from the right corner, sent the puck to the crease looking for Ozzy Wiesblatt. The puck bounced into the net off defenseman Fitzgerald for Lucchini’s 11th marker of the year. Wiesblatt and Stastney recorded the helpers.
After six first-period goals, only one was scored in the second frame. Milwaukee’s Ondrej Pavel had the puck on the right wing boards. His initial shot was blocked back to him so he skated to the face-off dot and whipped shot inside the opposite post for his second goal in as many games. Kyle Marino and Ryan Ufko assisted.
The IceHogs tied the game 4-4 at :41 of the third period when Samuel Savoie tapped a behind-the-back pass from Athanasiou into the net.
Haider stopped 22 of 23 shots in his AHL debut and took the shootout loss.
The Admirals return to action Fri., Feb. 7 when the teams hosts the Grand Rapids Griffins at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
