ROSEMONT – The Ice Hogs took an early 1-0 lead thanks to a Nolan Allan goal–making it look like they’d get head coach Anders Sorensen his 100th victory without breaking a sweat.
Turns out to get 100, they’d have to tie it with 0.01 left in regulation.
Rem Pitlick one timed a shot with one tenth of a second left in the game to even the score for the IceHogs and a pair of shootout goals from Mike Hardman and Zach Sanford finished the Wolves off 5-4 Wednesday night.
The Blackhawks were off and the IceHogs were on–even nationally via NHL Network–and boy they didn’t disappoint with the theatrics.
A couple thoughts after what was quite an exciting game to take in live.
Nolan Allan Logged A Lot of Time and Was Active Offensively
Allan opened the scoring with a shot through traffic that seemed to foreshadow an offensively charged night for the IceHogs. It was–but the Wolves answered every goal and then took the lead, holding it until literally the final second of the regulation.
While my mission was to tally Ethan Del Mastro’s minutes, it was Allan who spent the majority of time out there. He found time in every situation, and what was more impressive was how he was jumping in on plays. He nearly tied the game later in the third, taking a feed from the corner where he was all alone. But the shot whistled high and off the glass.
Allan was billed more of a defenseman’s defenseman, but he was active–jumping into rushes when the opportunity presented itself.
The steady defenseman didn’t overplay and was trusted by head coach Anders Sorensen during crucial stretches of the game. One of the Blackhawks clear strengths within the pipeline is their blue line. Rockford’s staff has clearly done a good job with the development of a critical place on the ice–that can provide stability for years to come.
There were some hiccups–but I’ll delve into that more tomorrow.
Sorensen Notches His 100th Career Victory
Bench boss Anders Sorensen doesn’t show a lot of emotion on the bench but one has to think even he couldn’t help but have a bit of of a rollercoaster of feelings during a finish like that one. The IceHogs didn’t make his 100th career victory come easy–taking the lead, then yielding it before tying it with less than a second left. Overtime sees a Pitlick take a penalty before Rockford wins it in a shootout.
Sorensen isn’t one to draw attention to himself and he certainly wasn’t going to make a bit deal about hitting the century mark in victories.
But the way it went will surely make that 100th win an easy one to remember.
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