ROCKFORD — Considering the time of year, Brandon Mashinter had an appropriate analysis for the Rockford IceHogs’ slow start Friday night.

“We had too much turkey in our legs,” the IceHogs winger said. “You can’t come out with a slow start like that.”

Rockford rebounded to control most of the play afterward, save the final minute of overtime when Chicago capitalized to escape with a 4-3 victory.

“Funny, we talked about it as a staff beforehand — we were a little bit nervous because of Thanksgiving and the hard battle we had the night before (in a 6-1 win over Iowa) that we might come in with a little bit of a slow start,” said acting head coach Mark Osiecki, as head coach Ted Dent was serving a one-game AHL suspension. “And obviously that showed a little bit.

“I thought we responded after that. The second and third periods were much better. They competed and played more the style of hockey that we have come to know.”

Until Brent Regner beat goalie Scott Darling with 10.2 seconds left in the seven-minute extra session in front of a BMO Harris Bank Center crowd of 5,168.

“After first period, I think we got our legs under us and had a different mindset and started getting behind their ‘D’ and kind of working down low and getting pucks to the net,” said Mashinter, who scored at 6:24 of the third to give Rockford a 3-2 lead.

That lasted until Colin Fraser produced the equalizer with goalie Matt Climie pulled at 18:54 of the third.

The one standings point meant Rockford (15-4-1-1) extended its unbeaten streak to six games overall and to five at home.

Chicago’s Ty Rattie connected on his team’s first shot on net 1:49 in. Goals by Pierre-Cedric Labrie (2:23) and rookie Jamie Wise (7:59) gave Rockford the lead in the middle session before Chicago’s Shane Harper evened it 2-2 at 13:30.

The ’Hogs tied a season, single-period low with four shots on net in the first period — while allowing 12. But they finished with a 40-30 edge.

Rockford was without regulars Stephen Johns, Viktor Svedberg and Alex Broadhurst (broken arm), all injured Wednesday. Johns and Svedberg are considered day-to-day. Center Cody Bass served his one-game suspension.

Reed Schreck: reedschreck1@gmail.com