Rockfords Loses Back and Forth Affair in Hershey 5-4

Hershey, PA – The Rockford IceHogs dropped their first game of the road trip against the Hershey Bears, 5-4 on Saturday night inside GIANT Center.

A little over two minutes into the 1st period, the Bears opened the scoring while shorthanded. Henrik Rybinski forced a turnover at center ice and flipped his breakaway shot over top of Drew Commesso.

The Hogs responded moments later with Dominic Toninato finishing off a great down low passing play with linemate Joey Anderson to tie the game 1-1.

Just 19 seconds into the 2nd period, Jamie Engelbert potted his 7th of the season. The Hogs winger received a pass on the back post from Kevin Lombardi to give Rockford it’s first lead of the game.

The Hogs doubled the advantage at 6:50 of the middle frame with a blast from Dmitri Kuzmin in the slot that got past Hershey’s Mitch Gibson. On a power play, the Bears pulled back within one goal, 3-2 when Ilya Protas potted a rebound.

Rockford regained the two-goal advantage on its next power play. Brett Seney in his first game back from the Spengler Cup, shot a puck off of a Hershey defenseman and into the net.

With a little over a minute to go in the 2nd, Brett Leason placed a shot from the far circle to bring Hershey back to 4-3. The Bears pulled even on the power play in the opening minutes of the 3rd with a drive from defenseman Cam Allen.

Hershey scored its third straight and took a 5-4 lead with 12 minutes to go in regulation. Aaron Ness fired from the far wing through traffic for the go-ahead goal.

Rockford pulled Commesso and pushed in the final minutes but couldn’t find the equalizer.