With the actual Blackhawks team in Germany preparing for an exhibition game Sunday, the Chicago brass took a scheduling snafu and turned it into a preseason nightmare Saturday afternoon, as they recalled the majority of the Rockford IceHogs’ roster to face the actual Bruins in Boston.
The results were just as you might imagine, considering the gap of talent.
This year’s IIHF World Championship goaltending darling, Finland’s Kevin Lankinen, started in goal for the Chicago IceHogs. To pour salt on the wound, the smarmy, unprofessional Boston announcing team claimed that they “never heard of” him and did not call a Blackhawks player by name (other than Lankinen) for the first five minutes of the game.
This was your “Blackhawks” starting lineup:
Brandon Hagel – Jacob Nilsson – Kris Versteeg
Aleksi Saarela – Philipp Kurashev – Dylan Sikura
Mikael Hakkarainen – MacKenzie Entwistle – Matthew Highmore
Alexandre Fortin – Reese Johnson – Tim Soderlund
Philip Holm – Adam Boqvist
Lucas Carlsson – Joni Tuulola
Chad Krys – Nicolas Beaudin
Period one
The overmatched Icehogs roster was expectedly in over their heads, taking a penalty just 19 seconds into the game. They killed the man advantage, but were pinned in their own end for almost the entire period.
The barrage of goals began at the 11:21 mark of the game and resulted in a 4–0 Boston lead before the IceHogs knew what hit them.
Goals by Jake DeBrusk (one even strength goal, one power play goal), Charlie Coyle and David Pastrnak (power play goal) set the tone for a game these players should have never been in. The Coyle goal was just 32 seconds after DeBrusk opened the scoring and Pastrnak’s goal was with just over a minute remaining in the period.
The shot totals for the first period whitewash was 14–4, which should be expected from an NHL team facing an AHL roster.
Period two
Boston clearly took their foot off the gas after asserting their dominance for the opening 20 minutes. This did not stop the flow of goals though. They tallied two more goals, while yielding one to the IceHogs’ Philipp Kurashev, just past the midway point of the second frame.
Kurashev beats Rask for his first goal of the preseason 🚨 pic.twitter.com/ICm9oWs4tp
— Rockford IceHogs (@goicehogs) September 28, 2019
Pastrnak scored his second goal of the game, just shy of nine minutes into the period, which would be the last goal Lankinen faced. In a planned move, Matt Tomkins took over in goal for the “Chicago” team at the midway point of the period. He was welcomed by a Karson Kuhlman goal just a couple of minutes later.
The shots actually favored the IceHogs 9–7 with the home team setting cruise control early on, but the score was 6–1. The visitors were just hoping to make it out of Boston uninjured, so they could continue their preseason.
Period three
As the third period began, the only question were just how many the Bruins would eventually score and if DeBrusk or Pastrnak would get their hat tricks.
The answers were eight and yes to both players. Pastrnak completed his hat trick just a minute into the period and DeBrusk got his just north of the 13-minute mark.
Tim Soderlund gave the visitors something to cheer about with a sharp breakaway goal in the final minute of the game, but this was purely clerical.
Stop and pop.
🚨 Söderlund pic.twitter.com/mzvnZaExYv
— Rockford IceHogs (@goicehogs) September 28, 2019