Blackhawks Daily: Ice Hogs Eliminated By Grand Rapids; Stars Win Game 7

In the Calder Cup Playoffs, Chicago’s AHL affiliate in the Rockford Ice Hogs continued their series against the Grand Rapids Griffins. The Griffins ended up pulling off a 4-2 victory over Rockford which eliminated them from postseason contention. It is the first series win for Grand Rapids since they won the Calder Cup in 2017. They won the series 3-1 and they were buoyed by many of the top picks from their drafts dating back to 2021.

Rockford’s only two goals in the game came off the stick of Lukas Reichel. Looking for momentum for next season from him? There it is.  All of the players throughout the organization, including Rockford, can be excited about where this franchise is going. It won’t be long before a lot of these Ice Hogs are in Chicago.

In the NHL, the Selke Trophy goes to the forward voted the best to excel at the defensive aspects of the game. Chicago Blackhawks fans have seen Jonathan Toews win it and he was a candidate in almost every year of his career.

Meanwhile, the Stanley Cup Playoffs continued on Sunday night when game seven of the first-round series between the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars was played.

This was a wild series between two legit Stanley Cup contenders. Vegas had a 2-0 series lead before losing three straight games. When they trailed the series 3-2 heading into game six, they forced a game seven. In the decisive winner-take-all game, the Stars got it done by a final score of 2-1. It was another low-scoring game with great goaltending, solid defense, and low-scoring totals.

The defending Stanley Cup champions are now out and will defend no more. The Dallas Stars are very good and could beat anybody. It will be interesting to see how they do in their next game against a very good team.

Blackhawks In Case You Missed It

Chicago Blackhawks goalie Petr Mrazek had a great year in the net. If he weren’t playing so well for them, they would have been an even worse team overall.

Lukas Reichel had an up-and-down year in the Chicago Blackhawks organization. By the end, he looked like someone who could make a positive impact on the team and ended his professinal season with a pair of goals in Game Four against the Griffins.

Drew Commesso is proving to be a great player in the Blackhawks system as well. He could be a goalie that takes over for them in the NHL one day.

Hockey Now Playoff Focus

Boston Hockey Now: Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said that David Pastrnak needed to be better. He answered by scoring the series-winning goal in overtime.

Florida Hockey Now: The Florida Panthers have struggled against the Boston Bruins this season so they must overcome that to have a chance in their second-round series.

Colorado Hockey Now: The Colorado Avalanche know their second-round opponent now as the Dallas Stars won their game seven matchup.