It was not the best of weekends for The Winnebago County Bacon Bits. It wasn’t that busy, as they only had a divisional double-header against Grand Rapids and Milwaukee. But that didn’t stop them from continuing their idiotic ways and losing both of them under an avalanche of penalties and some Funhouse defending.
Friday night saw the Hogs’ second trip to Grand Rapids, which is probably two more than anyone should make. Another habit the Hogs have gotten into is surrendering a goal early, and they did so again here. Riley Sheahan, which sounds like a name that should be on some terrible Fox show that I wouldn’t watch,, banged home one from the crease merely two minutes in.
But the Hogs responded well, quickly answering with two of their own. Shawn Lalonde put one home from the point after some nice work from Rob Flick and Jimmy Hayes, and Brandon Saad netted his first of the year after being sprung on a breakaway by Hayes. Saad absolutely undressed Petr Mrazek with a move that Tony Amonte would have loved.
But the lead would last six minutes before douchebag Brendan Smith and Sheahan would score again after a pretty hilarious Brett Lebda turnover. Actually, you can just always call him “pretty hilarious Brett Lebda.” Hayes would claw back a shorty in the 2nd period of a wrister that Mrazek probably should have had, but the Hogs got no closer. In shock of shocks, the Hogs only took three penalties on this night, but still gave up a power play goal. And the defense still couldn’t decide if it wanted to stand up at the blue line no or sag back, and instead did much of neither and let the Griffins have long stretches in the attacking zone. But it did come with a moronic Kyle Beach penalty in the offensive zone, earning himself 5, a game, and a suspension for boarding in the offensive zone.
They returned home the next night for their fist encounter of the year with the Milwaukee Admirals. And it didn’t get much better. They conceded six power plays, giving up one goal on them, and were never really anywhere close to the Admirals though the 4-2 score might suggest otherwise. Pirri and Morin dented for Rockford.
The losses dropped them to fourth in the division, only above the helpless Rivermen (who have beaten Rockford for one of their two wins all year). Brandon Pirri is still their leading scorer with 11 points in 12 games. It’ll be a rough week for the Piggies, as after Peoria comes in to emulate their Papa Blues dunderhead ways, they’ll have a double-header with the completely loaded Houston Aeros (Minnehaha’s farm team). Yeah, that’s Granlund, Coyle, Zucker, Scandella, and a couple other real prospects. The second of those two games will actually take place at Excel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Oh, and they’re wearing those jerseys on Friday.
