Victor Ejdsell scored his second goal of the night at 17:22 of the third overtime period as the Rockford IceHogs completed a three-game sweep of the Chicago Wolves with a 4-3 win at Allstate Arena on Thursday night.
The eighth-longest game in AHL history sends the IceHogs into the Central Division Finals, where they will face either Grand Rapids or Manitoba.
Ejdsell beat Maxime Lagace from the right-wing circle in the waning seconds of a Rockford power play to end the contest after four hours and 59 minutes.
Lagace finished with a franchise-record 72 saves for the Wolves, shutting out Rockford for a span of 83:28 between Ejdsell’s two goals.
Collin Delia stopped 52 shots for the IceHogs, including all 30 he faced in nearly three full periods of sudden-death overtime. Final shots were 76-55 in favor of Rockford.
Philip Holm got Chicago on the board first with a goal 8:48 into the opening period, and Keegan Kolesar made it 2-0 at 8:02 of the second.
But Rockford responded quickly, with Cody Franson cutting the deficit in half on a power-play goal at 9:50 before Chris DiDomenico tied it and Ejdsell gave the IceHogs a 3-2 lead just 54 seconds later.
Wade Megan tied things back up 3:11 into the third period with his second goal of the series for the Wolves.
Rockford went 2-for-6 on the power play in Game 3, finishing the series 7-for-18 (38.9 percent) with the man advantage.
Central Division Semifinals – Series “E” (best-of-5)
C1-Chicago Wolves vs. C4-Rockford IceHogs
Game 1 – Sat., Apr. 21 – Rockford 2, CHICAGO 1 | Recap
Game 2 – Sun., Apr. 22 – ROCKFORD 5, Chicago 2 | Recap
Game 3 – Thu., Apr. 26 – Rockford 4, CHICAGO 3 (3OT)
