Category Archives: Blackhawks

Hawks take the President’s Trophy with 4-1 victory in Edmonton; Drew Leblanc makes his pro debut

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Brad Vandenberk| Leave a comment

By Brad Vandenberk

The Blackhawks miracle regular season finishes this Saturday night in St Louis.  But first, they have to complete their western Canadian road trip with a stop in Edmonton to face the Oilers.

Now, we all remember it was back on February 25th when the Oilers that took the Hawks to overtime and the Hawks finishing on top 3-2 with a great move by Marian Hossa.  The second match against the troublesome Oilers saw the Hawks surrender 4 goals in the first period on route to a 6-5 defeat on March 10th.

Tonight’s game was the rubber match.  The only thing the Oilers were playing for is pride as the Hawks can clinch the President’s trophy with 2 points.  Read more »

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Blackhawks Out-Everythinged in Vancouver

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Brad Gardner| Leave a comment

By Brad Gardner

The Chicago Blackhawks were throttled early in Vancouver and the Canucks did not let their foot of the gas pedal, taking a 3-1 victory over the top team in the Western Conference. Daniel Sedin assisted on the eventual game-winner and scored a goal of his own late in the second period.

Cory Schneider got the win for the Canucks by stopping 24 of the 25 shots he faced. Corey Crawford faced a far greater number of quality chances and came away with 29 saves in the loss.

Although the Blackhawks came into Monday’s games with a chance to clinch the President’s Trophy, the Pittsburgh Penguins came away with a 3-1 victory in Ottawa, keeping the President’s Trophy out of the Blackhawks’ reach on Monday. With three games left to play for each team, Chicago still holds a three-point lead over Pittsburgh for the league’s best record. Read more »

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Smith, Coyotes outlast Hawks in a shootout 3-2

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Brad Vandenberk| 1 Comment

By Brad Vandenberk

The boards remained intact at the United Center as the Blackhawks played at home once again this weekend, finishing up a back to back, with the visiting Phoenix Coyotes.

On Friday night, they outlasted the Predators in overtime completing their season series.  This game really didn’t mean a lot, but the Hawks obtained another two points toward gaining the President’s trophy.

The Coyotes came in looking to help gain some momentum for a late playoff push.  Patrick Sharp remained out for this contest with an upper body injury.  Ray Emery was unable to back up with recently called up Carter Hutton sporting the baseball cap.  Read more »

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Hossa’s Overtime Tally Sinks Predators

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Jon Fromi| Leave a comment

By Jon Fromi

The Chicago Blackhawks were able to withstand a rare offensive explosion from the Nashville Predators Friday night. In front of a full house that helped the team celebrate broadcaster Pat Foley’s 30 years with the organization, the ‘Hawks got an overtime game-winner from the stick of Marian Hossa to best Nashville 5-4.

Chicago won its eighth straight game and also swept the Predators in the season series as five different Blackhawks got the puck past Pekke Rinne. Duncan Keith had a three-point evening and opened up the scoring in the fifth minute of action. Read more »

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IceHogs playoff chances and scenarios; Dylan Olsen injury; notes on Drew Leblanc, Stephen Johns and more

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Chris Block| 2 Comments

By Chris Block

First off, a quick note:

I don’t have any shows of my own planned at the moment, but I can announce that I will be joining the HockeeNight PuckCast this Sunday night, April 21st.  We’ll be discussing the Blackhawks as they get primed for postseason; either a Rockford IceHogs post-mortem or playoff preview and if maybe even more 1960’s and 70’s northeast professional wrestling as we did last time I did the PuckCast.

–Nashville Predators’ winger Kevin Henderson will be making his NHL debut tonight against the Blackhawks at the UC.  Back in 2007, Henderson was an invitee to the Blackhawks summer prospect camp.  At that camp, Henderson skated on Jonathan Toews’ line.  The summer ’07 camp was the one just prior to Toews and Patrick Kane’s rookie seasons.

DYLAN OLSEN UPDATE

The Blackhawks 2009 first round pick suffered a foot injury on April 7th in a game against the Peoria Rivermen in Rockford.  Olsen blocked a shot off his left foot during the second period of that game and has not played since.

Olsen was back skating with the IceHogs this week and could possibly play in the regular season finale tomorrow night in Cedar Park, Texas.  Olsen has been ruled out of tonight’s game in San Antonio, however.

Tonight, Rockford will go with the following defense pairs: Ryan Stanton-Adam Clendening, Klas Dahlbeck-Steve Montador, Joe Lavin-Shawn Lalonde.

ROCKFORD ICEHOGS – It all comes down to this…

The Rockford IceHogs (40-31-2-1, .561, 83 points) wrap up their regular season this weekend with two games in the Lone Star State.

Tonight, Rockford will visit the San Antonio Rampage (29-36-2-7, .453).  The Rampage (14th in the west) are the AHL affiliate to the Florida Panthers. Read more »

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Blackhawks Win Sixth Straight In Sweeping Stars 5-2

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Jon Fromi| Leave a comment

By Jon Fromi

The Chicago Blackhawks swept the season series from the Dallas Stars Monday night at the United Center. Dallas came in the winners of five consecutive contests but was no match for a Blackhawks squad that parlayed a big third period into a 5-2 victory.

The win is Chicago’s sixth in a row and puts them one win from locking up home ice in the Western Conference. Three points from Marian Hossa and an active night by the third line, led by Andrew Shaw, paced the Blackhawks effort.

Brandon Saad took a nice feed from Jonathan Toews in the first minute of action. However, he could not settle the puck and the attempt was off the mark.  The Hawks settled into the Dallas zone for much of the opening minutes. Read more »

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Crawford, ‘Hawks shutout the Blues 2-0 in the Lou

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Brad Vandenberk| 3 Comments

By Brad Vandenberk

After squeaking a shootout victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night at the UC, it was time to hit the road again and venture into St Louis for a Sunday afternoon tilt against the Blues.  The game on Friday marked the last time the Wings and Hawks will play each other as divisional rivals with Detroit heading east next year.

St Louis lost on Friday night, which meant that the Hawks clinched the central division and now the sights are set on the President’s Trophy.  Friday’s shootout victory gave the Wings a much needed point to stay within a playoff spot in the western conference.  Read more »

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Blackhawks, Wings tie; Saad clinches extra point in the shootout

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Brad Gardner| 1 Comment

By Brad Gardner

The Blackhawks completed the season sweep of the Detroit Red Wings in a 3-2 shootout win at the United Center on Friday night. Jonathan Toews tied the game with around three minutes left in regulation and Brandon Saad scored the decisive goal in the shootout.

The Blackhawks clinched the Central Division title in what will be the last regular season meeting between the two teams while they are division rivals. The longest rivalry in hockey will be relegated to inter-conference play next season when the Red Wings move to the Eastern Conference.

Corey Crawford got the start for the first time in eight days, matching up against Detroit’s Jimmy Howard, fresh off signing a six-year extension with the Wings. Both goalies turned in strong performances, with Crawford making 27 saves and Howard 26. Of the ten total attempts in the shootout, the goalies allowed only three conversions. Read more »

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Emery shuts down Wild in Minny 1-0

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Jon Fromi| Leave a comment

By Jon Fromi

The Chicago Blackhawks won their third straight game Tuesday in opportunistic fashion, making a Marian Hossa tally hold up behind Ray Emery’s third shutout of the season. Razor stopped all 20 shots he faced as the Blackhawks won 1-0 at the Excel Energy Center.

Chicago had several nice chances in the early minutes. Three minutes into the game, Duncan Keith swiped a puck along the boards and got to the front of the net with Andrew Shaw on his right. Keith’s shot was absorbed by Niklas Backstrom.

The Wild had a chance when Devin Setoguchi got his stick on a slap shot in the eighth minute. However, the deflection skidded along the crease and never found the net. Read more »

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Blackhawks clinch playoff berth with win over Preds

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Brad Gardner| Leave a comment

By Brad Gardner

The Blackhawks completed the weekend sweep of the Predators with a 5-3 victory on Sunday night at the United Center, becoming the first team in the league to clinch a playoff berth.

A pair of goals inside of one minute during the third period was the difference for Chicago, which beat Nashville for fourth time this season. The Blackhawks moved to 9-0-0 in the second game of back-to-backs during this condensed season.

Ray Emery earned a second consecutive start after shutting out the Predators on 20 shots in Nashville on Saturday. He stopped 19 of 22 shots in this one, coming up with key saves during the second and third periods while the game was still up for grabs. Read more »

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