Tag Archives: Brandon Bollig

Blues dominate Blackhawks 5-1 in The Lou

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Brad Vandenberk| Leave a comment

By Brad Vandenberk

The Chicago Blackhawk`s three-game road trip came to an end on Tuesday night in St Louis.  The Hawks had a 3-game winning streak heading into the Scottrade Center.  They took two eastern conference teams out earlier last week with the Leafs and Senators falling by one.  They then travelled to Detroit where they won a tight match against their divisional rivals.  With the Hawks’captain still on the shelf, they have won all three previous games the hard way, grinding out with great defense and even the back checkers making their presence felt.  This game would offer another divisional match up with St Louis holding the edge in toughness and grit.

The line up remained the same with Brandon Bollig making his “home” debut.  Bollig called in a favour and put his whole family in the crowd.  The Hawks knew they would be going to battle against this tough Blues team.  Niklas Hjalmarsson, only days away from returning, remained out with Steve Montador joining him. Morrison, O’Donnell and Frolik also missed out on the action again.  Patrick Kane continued his play at center with Marian Hossa and Andrew Brunette. The rest of the line up remained the same.  Ray Emery started his 3rd consecutive game in net.  Read more »

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Hossa, Kane heat up to clip struggling Leafs

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Brad Vandenberk| Leave a comment

By Brad Vandenberk

It was a night of debuts at the United Center on Wednesday.  Newly acquired defenseman Johnny Oduya donned the number 27 and started the game paired with Brent Seabrook.  Brandon Bollig answered the bat phone and was called up for duty.  Bollig is 7th in the AHL in penalty minutes and was hoping to bring energy and grit to a Hawks team that has lost 3 straight games.  The Hawks debuted their white jerseys at home as the Leafs chose this game to where their 3rd jersey’s which are a dark blue.  Corey Crawford got the call for the home team and Jonas Gustavsson tried to right the good ship Maple Leaf.  Jonathan Toews missed his 5th straight game with an upper body injury.  Steve Montador and Niklas Hjalmarsson were still out with injuries as well.  Sean O’Donnell, Michael Frolik and Brendan Morrison sat upstairs as five rookies would sport the Indian head.  The Hawks had lost 12 of their last 16 coming in and the Leafs were not any better, as they had lost 9 of their last 10.  This game would be a test of each goaltender as both teams have had shaky tendy’s.  However, the Leafs haven’t beaten the Hawks in 9 years, 6 straight games.  Read more »

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Hawks pickup Oduya, Move Scott; Recall Shaw, Bollig

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Chris Block| Leave a comment

By Chris Block

The lone addition Stan Bowman and the Blackhawks made before Monday’s 2pm central trade deadline was mobile defenseman Johnny Oduya.

Oduya, 30, comes to the Hawks from the Winnipeg Jets at the price of a 2nd and 3rd round draft choice in the 2013 NHL Draft.  He is an unrestricted free agent this summer.

The six-foot 190 pound Stockholm native was playing third pair minutes in Winnipeg averaging 19 minutes per game.  In 63 games played, Oduya had 2 goals, 11 assists and was a minus-9.

Oduya’s biggest asset is his skating.  His addition and impact on the Blackhawks will be strikingly similar to how Chris Campoli fit in after he was acquired at last season’s trade deadline.  Campoli’s addition was regarded as underwhelming at the time, but he did skate some big minutes for the Hawks. Read more »

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Hutton talks contract, Fornataro on new opportunity, Pirri aiming to be a leader and Dent explains MacTavish incident

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Chris Block| 4 Comments

By Chris Block

Carter Hutton said he and his agent were not contacted by the Blackhawks about signing an NHL contract until this past Wednesday.

“I didn’t expect it,” Hutton admitted after picking up his IceHogs leading 11th victory in a 3-2 win at Allstate Arena in Rosemont on Friday night.  “It happened the day before I got put on waivers.”

Hutton had to be placed on waivers on Thursday for the purpose of signing him to the NHL contract.  Per guidelines in the NHL collective bargaining agreement, Hutton first had to be offered to the 29 other NHL teams before he could officially become a Blackhawk.  The contract itself was done and official on Thursday morning.

 “It kind of was quick,” Hutton said of the negotiation.  “There wasn’t too much to talk about.  It was kind of a done deal right away.”

As covered on Friday, Hutton was on a one-year standard AHL deal with Rockford and has been with the team ever since being recalled from Toledo on December 3rd to replace an injured Alexander Salak.  Hutton performed so well in Salak’s absence that he became the clear number one during that time and when Salak returned Alec Richards was sent to Toledo of the ECHL.

“It doesn’t really change a ton with me,” Hutton said.  Read more »

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Quick strikes the answer for Wolves, Defeat IceHogs 6-2 at the BMO Saturday night to split weekend series – Stanton injured

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Chris Block| 2 Comments

By Chris Block

After an all-around strong performance in a 2-1 win over the Chicago Wolves on Friday night, the Rockford IceHogs couldn’t overcome mistakes against the same team, in the same setting twenty-four hours later.

A juicy rebound goal by Rostislav Olesz and a Shawn Lalonde shot that went off Jimmy Hayes’ pant leg and in was all the IceHogs could muster against Matt Climie on Saturday night before the second-biggest crowd of the season in Rockford’s BMO Harris Bank Center.

That wouldn’t be enough as the Wolves scored goals in bunches to defeat Rockford by a final score of 6-2 in front of a sell-out crowd of 6,164.

Carter Hutton was mercifully pulled from his net by IceHogs coach Ted Dent after the Wolves scored three goals in 2:34 midway through the second period.   Hutton was able to stop 15 of the 20 shots he saw in 28:23 of action but he didn’t have much chance on a few of those goals.

“I apologized to Hutts because our team wasn’t there in front of him,” Dent noted of speaking to Hutton and explaining the switch between the second and third periods.

Alexander Salak came in to relieve Hutton, one night after his victorious 2-1, 27-save return to action after being sidelined ten weeks with an ankle injury.  Salak stopped all 15 shots he faced over 31 minutes in relief of Hutton on Saturday.  Salak was pulled for an extra attacker with three and a half minutes to go when Chicago notched its sixth and final goal of the evening into the vacated Rockford net. Read more »

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Hutton, IceHogs win 4th straight, cap off week that has young team buzzing; Update on Alexander Salak, Pirri talks Blackhawks

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Chris Block| Leave a comment

By Chris Block

Rockford extended its season-long winning streak to four games on Sunday in a 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals before of a sparse crowd of 3,938 on “Blackhawks Night” at BMO Harris Bank Center.

Carter Hutton was spectacular in goal once again, capping off seven days that will assuredly earn him AHL Player of the Week honors.  Hutton stopped 33 shots against the Admirals in route to a 4-0-0-0 week in which Hutton allowed a total of five goals against.

“We got great goaltending tonight,” said IceHogs head coach Ted Dent. “It’s a nice way to finish off the weekend.”

It was a weekend that saw the IceHogs win three one-goal games, the first two coming in a home-and-home versus interstate rival Chicago Wolves.  Despite an overall record (18-21-1-3) that still seats Rockford 3rd from the bottom team percentage of points wise in the league, the IceHogs have been good in games decided by a goal, 9-6-1-3.

That particular record hasn’t come around until of late for the young IceHogs.  Rockford is 5-1-0-0 in their last six games decided by one goal.  Two of those wins came in overtime.

“Earlier in the year, the one-goal games, the last five minutes of the game you just didn’t have a good feeling on the bench,” Dent said.  “You felt like something bad was going to happen.  And it was.  It was always happening, bad.  Now, I think there is a comfort level that we can defend a lead.” Read more »

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Hawks sign top picks McNeill and Danault, plus Shaw; Podcast Wednesday and more IceHogs notes

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Chris Block| 6 Comments
Mark McNeill – photo: HockeyBroad.com

By Chris Block

We’ve got TTMI~Radio coming up tomorrow night (Wednesday) January 4th over at BlogTalkRadio.com/TheThirdManIn.

Join us live at 8pm central for our annual New Years resolution and predictions extravaganza.  This show should be Super.

We’ll take a look at why the Blackhawks suck against the Oilers, what’s wrong with Dan Carcillo’s brain… how the Blackhawks don’t seem to care about the brains of Marcus Kruger, Brent Seabrook and others… and we’ll preview the week ahead, including the big matchups Thursday in Philly with the Flyers and back at home Sunday with the Red Wings.

Beer, Bacon & Malort

My good friends over at HockeeNight dot com will be hosting some Red Wings fans this Saturday night, January 7th, at Paddy Long’s in Chicago at 1028 W. Diversey.  That, of course, is on the eve of the Red Wings-Blackhawks matchup at United Center the next night.  Hmm.  Beer, bacon and Malort… don’t mind if I do.

–I’ll have another column running in the Committed Indian this Sunday night.

McNeil, Danault gets deals

On Monday, the Blackhawks made official the signings of both of their 2011 1st round draft picks, centers Mark McNeill and Phillip Danault.

Both players will continue with their junior teams and likely be called to the Rockford IceHogs if those seasons end before Rockford’s does, which at this point looks like it’ll be on April 14th. Read more »

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Pirri lifts Power Play, Hogs to 4-2 win over Milwaukee

Posted on December 18, 2011 by Chris Block| 4 Comments

By Chris Block

A complete 60-minute effort was all the IceHogs needed to defeat second-place Milwaukee on Saturday night.

Rockford improved their season record to 11-14-1-2 on goals from Pete Leblanc, Brandon Bollig and two from the team’s leading scorer, Brandon Pirri.

Rockford’s power play entered Saturday night’s game having scored just 3 times in its past 40 chances.  Against the Milwaukee Admirals, the IceHogs power play scored 3 times on 5 chances Saturday.  Two of those goals came off the stick of Brandon Pirri, the other was set up by Pirri.

“I thought our power play really helped us out tonight,” head coach Ted Dent said after a week of working with that unit in practices.  “We finally figured that out.”

Pete Leblanc capitalized on an early power play opportunity when he snuck into the low slot and chipped a feed from Brandon Pirri past Milwaukee Admirals starter Jeremy Smith.  Ben Smith was in front of the net disturbing Smith’s vision as well on the play, putting the Hogs up 1-0 at 10:35 of the opening period.  The assist marked Pirri’s 50th professional helper (49 AHL, 1 NHL)

Two minutes later, after failing to convert on a second power play, Brett McLean was called for roughing, giving Milwaukee its first chance with the man advantage.  The Admirals wasted little time converting as defenseman Jonathan Blum whizzed a shot from the left point past Carter Hutton’s glove to tie the game at 1-1.  Admirals forward Ryan Thang was in front battling for position with Joe Lavin, and Hutton was late reacting to Blum’s shot. Read more »

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IceHogs offense sparks early, Rockford earns impressive 6-3 victory over rival Chicago Wolves

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Chris Block| 2 Comments

                           

By Chris Block

A combination of Rockford’s offense gaining new life and Carter Hutton’s 32 saves ended the IceHogs’ four-game losing streak and lifted the baby-Hawks to a 6-3 win over rival Chicago Wolves.

“It was huge,” alternate captain Brett McLean said of the swoon-snapping victory.  “We felt lately that maybe we had not gotten the results that we’ve deserved.”

After scoring just five goals total in their previous four games, the IceHogs’ offense exploded for a four-goal first period and six goals in all before a crowd of 4,272 at BMO Harris Bank Center.

“It was a good, hard-paced fast game,” said IceHogs’ head coach Ted Dent.  “I thought we played as close to a 60-minute game as we could.  There were a couple breakdowns in the second period, but other than that, I thought we played a solid game.”

Carter Hutton made his third-consecutive start since being recalled from Toledo last weekend after the Alexander Salak injury.

“I thought he was good, especially on the power play in the third (period),” Dent said of Hutton’s performance after his team defeated the Wolves for the first time this season in three matchups.  “I thought he was solid.  He gave us a real good chance to win tonight.” Read more »

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IceHogs news and notes: Olesz and power play tied to recent slide, Froese back, McLean to leave team, Richards struggles, Bollig fight

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Chris Block| 1 Comment

By Chris Block

It’s another 3-in-3 this weekend for the Rockford IceHogs, beginning tonight when the Chicago Wolves drive up Interstate 90 to the BMO Harris Bank Center for a 7:05 puck drop.

The Wolves have won each of two meetings two far, a back-to-back, home and home affair on October 21-22.  Rockford and Chicago will see each other 12 times this season.  The final meeting coming on Sunday February 26th in Rockford.  After tonight, the two teams will next face off on December 29th at Allstate Arena.  So, the other eight meetings will come in January and February.

Chicago (9-8-1-3) is 4th in the West Division, sitting 5 points (and with a game in hand) above 5th and last-place Rockford.  It’s already becoming a broken record, but the IceHogs really need these two points tonight to keep from falling too far behind the pack.

Saturday night, Grand Rapids visits the BMO.  It will be the final time this season to see Detroit Red Wings prospects at the BMO.  Rockford has defeated the Griffins in two meetings already this season, including a 3-2 opening night victory in front of a crowd of 5,434.  The two teams will wrap their 4-game season series this coming Wednesday night in Grand Rapids.

On Sunday, the IceHogs travel to Milwaukee (13-6-0-1) for their first visit to the Bradley Center this season.  These two teams have yet to face off in 2011-12 and will do so 12 times before its all said and done.  The Admirals are a modest 6-4 at home this year.  By Sunday, Milwaukee will also be playing their 3rd game in as many days as they host Grand Rapids tonight, and visit the Chicago Wolves tomorrow evening.

–Watch the IceHogs: Tonight’s Rockford IceHogs – Chicago Wolves game will be televised locally in Chicago by the Wolves at 7pm on My50-Chicago, WPWR channel 50. Read more »

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