Evaluating the IceHogs after a let-down of a weekend.
By Jack Masters, Lead IceHogs Analyst, @hogthought on X
ROCKFORD-- After the past two weekends resulted in the IceHogs splitting two game sets, Rockford broke that trend this weekend.... by losing both games.
The IceHogs appeared to start hot in game 1 vs. Grand Rapids when Landon Slaggert pounced on a Cavan Fitzgerald rebound and slid it past Cossa. The goal was called back though for goaltender interference when it was determined Colton Dach had made contact with Cossa, causing him to fall over. Here's a look:
In live action, it sure looked like Dach had pushed Cossa over when he turned to face the puck. After a replay, it's hard to see contact that hard to force Cossa back.
It was zero after that until 2:38 into the third when Gabriel Seger struck with his 2nd of the year. Three minutes later he struck again for his third and it was 2-0 Griffins.
The IceHogs had a bit of fight left though. Five minutes later, Landon Slaggert pounced on a GR breakout to create a turnover and set up Frank Nazar for his 4th goal of the year.
Three minutes after Nazar's goal, Artyom Levshunov struck for his first pro goal with a seeing-eye wrister that snuck past Cossa to tie the game at 2:
Sheldon Dries struck for Grand Rapids a minute after to suck the life back out of the BMO and it was all Griffins on a Friday at the BMO.
SATURDAY NIGHT
Saturday night brought the return of the Iowa Wild to the BMO for the first time (not including preseason) of the year. Rockford struck first via a Cole Guttman PP goal, that was set up on a beautiful hard-working effort from Frank Nazar, (How about fore-checking the goalie!?):
Iowa responded with two of their own in the first from Liam Ohgren and Luke Toporowski and it was 2-1 Iowa after one.
Rockford tied it at 3 for, yet again, around a minute before Luke Toporowski broke the tie and Iowa ran away with it 6-3.
TAKEAWAYS
In general, a frustrating weekend for the IceHogs. Two seemingly back-and-forth games Rockford should have found a way to win at least one of them.
In game one it's easy to see how the no-goal call could suck some of the life out of a young Icehogs squad. Grand Rapids pressed them with physical play and Rockford just could not get consistent pressure on Cossa from areas that were not the point or outside dots.
Game 2 is where the frustration comes in, both for Icehogs fans and for Blackhawk prospect watchers. Iowa's first goal was a busted coverage play where Liam Ohgren snuck behind Rockford and buried a breakaway five-hole on Commesso, the second goal from Toporowski was an un-pressured wrister from above the circles. Guttman "pressured" with a fly-by poke-check attempt and Korchinski backed off with no pressure at all, leaving a lane for Toporowski to load up a rocket that Commesso probably wants back.
Artyom Levhsunov showed the side of his game that brings his only real drawbacks: mental lapses. Before I dive in on it, I want to show a tweet from @RinksideGeneral on X, breaking down his mental lapse issue perfectly:
Now to Artyom's game last night. He had his moments, a couple of good pinch-down plays to set up looks at the net, as well as a hanful of good plays to shut down Iowa's zone entry attempts. But his real "mental lapse" moment came with 18:35 to go in the third:
With a look from the high slot, Levshunov looks to pass off to the wing but instead finds an Iowa forward to create a turnover. Once the Hogs recover the puck, Arty attempts to make a quick in-to-out move to get space from a fore-checking Wild forward. Did not work. Arty turned it over, again, and Iowa jumped it to make it 4-3 which sealed the game. Re-watching it, I'm sure it will be a good learning situation for him to just get that puck along the boards to a wide-open Ethan Del Mastro for a breakout.
Say what you will about effort level, but there is no doubt it's sloppy. Two turnovers, three if you squint, and eventually the go-ahead goal. He's a young defender and these are bound to happen, but man is it frustrating to see for the first time. It was good to see he was held accountable, as he was sat for the next two shifts. Long story short I am not concerned though. He's in Rockford to make these mistakes and learn from them. If he's still making plays like this come April, then I'll start pointing fingers. Until then, we ride it out and watch development happen first-hand.
LOOKING AHEAD
Rockford heads to Grand Rapids Wednesday for the Griffins school-day game, a 10 AM start.
The Hogs return home for a Friday match-up with the Manitoba Moose at the BMO, at 7 pm. They wrap up their week in Rosemont with a Sunday game against the Wolves, at 3 pm.
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