Rockford IceHogs Use Balanced Scoring Attack To Dispose of Grand Rapids Griffins, 4-3

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com -Grand Rapids, Mich.- Alec Richards first career AHL win didn’t come easy.  The rookie net-minder did help stave off a third period rally by the Grand Rapids Griffins and held up a 4-3 Rockford IceHogs win on Friday night.

Richards made 27 saves and handed the Griffins just their second home loss in 11 games in 2009-10.

Rockford struck first when Pete MacArthur hacked in a rebound at 2:32 of the opening frame. MacArthur picked up a Jassen Cullimore slap shot and knocked in his second goal of the season past Thomas McCollum.

The Griffins evened the score before the first break, Evan McGrath fired home his sixth goal of the season over the blocker shoulder of Richards at 18:15. Francis Pare set up the marker.

Tied at 1-1 heading into period two, the IceHogs put two more tallies on the board to grab a two goal advantage. Kyle Greentree picked up a goal for the second straight game when he finished off a picture perfect three-on-two breakaway with Bracken Kearns and Jack Skille at 9:37.

Akim Aliu later extended the IceHogs lead to 3-1 when he banked in his sixth goal of the season off of McCollum at 18:03 of the middle stanza.

Rockford’s lead was extended to 4-1 with Nathan Davis’ eighth goal of the season in the third period. MacArthur picked off a Grand Rapids pass in the neutral zone and fed Davis at 3:54 for the three-goal cushion.

The lead would shrink, however, as the Griffins would close the gap to 4-3. Mattias Ritola began the comeback when he knocked a rebound past Richards at 5:57 for his fifth goal of the campaign.

Then Tomas Tatar made it a one-goal game when he finished off a Cory Emmerton feed at 11:52, his sixth goal of the season.

Richards and the IceHogs held the Griffins off the board the rest of the way. Rockford went 0-2 on the power play while Grand Rapids was 1-3.

Next Home Game: Saturday, Nov. 28 vs. Abbotsford Heat. Game time is slated for 7:05 p.m. The IceHogs close out November with their final contest against the Heat in 2009-10.  The first 1,500 fans to the game will receive a Jack Skille poster courtesy of Pepsi, FOX 39 and ESPN Radio 1380 AM.

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