Wolves shut out at Rockford

ROCKFORD, Ill. - Chicago surrendered four goals in the opening 20 minutes in dropping a 6-0 contest to Rockford in Illinois Lottery Cup action Friday night. The rough-and-tumble affair resulted in 26 penalties for a combined 98 penalty minutes. The teams square off again tomorrow night at the Allstate Arena.

The shutout loss was the first of the season for Chicago (20-19-1-2), which averaged 4.25 goals over its previous four road games. Jordan Caron finished with 4 shots on goal while Jeremy Welsh and Danny Kristo had 3 shots each.

Rockford (27-10-2-4) scored 4 times in the opening period, building a lead they would never relinquish. Vince Hinostroza took advantage of a turnover deep in the Wolves' zone, firing a wrister past goaltender Jordan Binnington. Marko Dano followed at 11:45, one-timing a puck that caromed off the boards. The IceHogs's Cameron Schilling and Kirill Gotovets added late goals (1:28 apart) scored in similar fashion, both coming off shots from inside the blueline that sneaked through traffic in front of the net.

Rockford added an insurance goal in the second period on Hinostroza's second goal of the night, a power play tally netted with 10:11 elapsed. Tanner Kero closed scoring with a power-play goal at 15:09 of the third period.

Binnington (9-7-2) recorded 3 saves before being replaced with Pheonix Copley, who finished with 14 saves. Rockford's Michael Leighton (23-4-4) turned away all 20 shots he faced to tie the AHL record for career shutouts (45).