Blackhawks’ AHL affiliate Rockford takes on Chicago Wolves in playoffs

The Chicago Blackhawks are not in the Stanley Cup playoffs. That doesn’t mean that professional hockey fans in Illinois should go all spring without playoff games. Their affiliate in the Rockford Ice Hogs is set to take on a historic series with the Chicago Wolves.

Of course, these two teams are considered rivals because of their geography. One straight shot up the highway connects these two teams. They also play each other a bunch in the regular season which helps feed the rivalry as well.

You can argue that the Wolves are the best team in the American Hockey League. They led the league with 110 standings points. Their record stood at 50-16-5-5. They were also 7-3-0-0 in their last ten games before the playoffs started.

With that in mind, for some reason, the Ice Hogs owned them in 2021-22. They played each other 12 times and the Hogs went 8-3-0-1. That is amazing considering where each team finished in the standings.

The Chicago Blackhawks are hoping to see the Rockford Ice Hogs make a run.

Now, they meet in a very intriguing playoff series. Will the Hogs keep up their dominance over the Wolves or will the Wolves finally play like the better team that they are. Anything can happen when the puck drops. The first game is on Thursday at Allstate Arena in Rosemont.

This is just going to be the third time that these two teams have met in the Calder Cup Playoffs. They each have a series win against one another all time. The Wolves, however, have won the Calder Cup more than once and the Ice Hogs have never.

There are some good Blackhawks prospects that you can see in this series if you check out a game. Guys like Lukas Reichel, Ian Mitchell, Colton Dach, Alex Vlasic, Nicolas Beaudin, and Arvid Soderblom are all hoping to be NHL players in the future with the Blackhawks. This is a huge stage for them to all stage their strengths.

The Blackhawks don’t have any prospects that stand out as future stars just yet but this is the type of stage where guys can make a name for themselves. Based on the nature of this rivalry, this is going to be a lot of fun to watch.