Luke Johnson netted two goals in regulation while Vinnie Hinostroza and David Kampf scored in the shoutout to lift the Rockford IceHogs 4-3 over the Chicago Wolves in Illinois Lottery Cup action Sunday evening at BMO Harris Bank Center.
The Wolves (4-9-1-1) forced overtime when defenseman Jake Walman and forward Paul Thompson scored in the final seven minutes. Forward Ivan Barbashev scored Chicago’s first goal.
At 11:21 of the first frame, Hinostroza zipped end-to-end and weaved through all five Wolves skaters for the 1-0 lead.
Brandon Pirri set up the tying goal when he flipped the puck over a crowd of skaters and it landed perfectly for an outlet pass to Thompson, who was in behind the Rockford (10-7-0-0) defense. Thompson attempted to stuff the puck behind Jeff Glass (5-1-0), but it did not have enough steam to cross the goal line. Barbashev, trailing the play, swept the puck over the goal line for the equalizer at 15:32.
Just 29 seconds in the second period, Rockford regained the lead when Luc Snuggerud snapped a shot from near the left point and it pinballed off a couple IceHogs into the net for the 2-1 lead. Johnson was the final IceHog to touch the puck for the goal.
In the third session, Johnson scored again as he went to the backdoor-side of the net and tapped in an Alexandre Fortin cross-slot pass to stretch Rockford’s lead 3-1 at 5:39.
With 6:07 left in the period — off a T.J. Tynan faceoff win — defenseman Jake Bischoff slid the puck from the left point to his partner Walman at the opposite point to pull the Wolves with a goal.
Exactly three minutes later Thompson — named team captain prior to the team’s departure for Rockford — scored on a short-handed breakaway chance to knot the game 3-3.
After a scoreless overtime, Hinostroza and Kampf scored while neither Pirri or Teemu Pulkkinen could solve Glass.
Glass finished the contest with 34 saves and C.J. Motte (1-1-1) made 36 in the loss.
Chicago faces the Texas Stars on Tuesday, Nov. 21, at Allstate Arena. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. and the game will stream on AHLLive.com.
