The Rockford IceHogs finally got the breakthrough they’d been waiting for, and three Chicago Blackhawks prospects were right in the middle of it.
Sacha Boisvert, AJ Spellacy and Marek Vanacker all got on the board in the AHL on Saturday night against the Grand Rapids Griffins, with Spellacy and Vanacker recording the first professional points of their careers. Rockford erased an early 3-0 deficit by scoring five straight goals and went on to hang on for a 6-4 win.
Vanacker did the heavy lifting on the scoreboard, scoring twice for Rockford. His goals came on the second and fourth tallies in the IceHogs’ five-goal surge. Boisvert added the fifth goal in that run, and Spellacy capped things off late in regulation with an empty-netter after Grand Rapids had pulled within one and was pushing to tie it.
For all three players, the timing mattered. The offense had been slow to come early in the season, and now each of them has something tangible to build on. That’s especially important for a group that isn’t just being judged by points alone, but by the overall impact they can make.
Boisvert and Spellacy, in particular, are not being measured only by what they do on the scoresheet. Still, getting those first points can go a long way for confidence, and all three prospects now look like young players who are starting to find their footing.
At training camp, it looked possible that one or more of them could get an NHL look at some point. But with the way their starts have gone and the Blackhawks’ own performance, that urgency may not be there right now. The organization can afford to let them develop the right way without rushing the process.
Rockford will be back at it Wednesday night in Grand Rapids. The IceHogs are 5-7-0-1, which has put them in an early hole, but they’re still close enough to climb back into the mix if they can put together a run. Arvid Soderblom is joining them this week, and it will be interesting to see what kind of impact he can make.
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