News release
13 March 2005
Rockford, IL The Elmira Jackals erased an early short-handed goal on their way to a 4-2 victory over the Rockford IceHogs Sunday afternoon at the Rockford MetroCentre.
Given the course of the previous two games of the road trip, an early Rockford short-handed goal did not provide a strong outlook for Elmira. Miguel Lafleche scored his breakaway goal at 6:13 just 30 seconds into the Jackals first power play of the game. However, on that same advantage Elmira answered the call. Eddy Lowe scored his second goal in as many games at 6:55 for a power play strike, assisted by Jarrett Konkle and Nathan Gillies. The IceHogs continued to pressure the Jackals, but again the visitors had a response. Jason Jaworski was sent free on a breakaway by Trevor Burgess and he blasted the puck past Michel Robinson for a short-handed goal at 18:20; Konkle also assisted on the goal, his second of the game.
Jackals goaltender Kevin Kurk was the difference again in the second period. Rockford threw 20 shots on goal in the middle frame and Kurk stopped all but one. Alex Kim put home a power play goal at 4:41 to tied the game at 2-2, but the Jackals goalie would allow no more in this game. Kurk stopped 36-of-38 through 40 minutes of play.
In the third period Elmira cracked down defensively and limited the up-tempo Rockford offense to just 10 shots in the period. Elmira College star Craig Macdonald put the Jackals back in the lead 3-2 at 13:59 when he snapped a mean wrist-shot past Robinson for the first goal of his professional career. Corey Foster added an empty net goal with nine-tenths of a second left in the game to cap the scoring.
Kurk earned 1st star honors after stopping 46-of-48 for his 7th win of the season. Robinson suffered the lost, making 16 saves on 20 shots.