On Friday May 2nd, Chicagoland hosted not one but two playoff hockey games. The Chicago Wolves of the AHL, a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Blues (who were just vanquished by the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs) took on the Rochester Americans. The puck dropped at 7pm at the “Madhouse on Mannheim,” All State Arena in suburban Rosemont, for Game 4 between the Wolves and the Americans.
Then, 17.2 miles away, 90 minutes later, the Chicago Blackhawks commenced their second round playoff series versus the Minnesota Wild. Now the Chicago Blackhawks and the Chicago Wolves are not in direct competition with each other. The American Hockey League is a farm system to the National Hockey League.
On this night, however, they were in fact, going to head to head against each other. So what happened?
First a little background and backstory.
Wolves GM Wendell Young was a goaltender for the Vancouver Canucks, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning in the NHL. Wendell Young is the only hockey player to have won a Memorial Cup (1982 Kitchener Rangers), a Calder Cup (1988 Hershey Bears), a Turner Cup (1998 and 2000 Chicago Wolves), and a Stanley Cup (with the 1991 and 1992 Penguins). I had an exclusive with Young where we talked some Chicago Wolves, Chicago Blackhawks and more.
Paul M. Banks: a few years ago, the Wolves actually outdrew the Blackhawks on occasion. With the Blackhawks now surging, how does that change the game for you? Is there direct competition? Or does a rising tide lift all boats?
Wendell Young: when the Blackhawks were on the downside and we were outdrawing them, if you go back and see statements that we wanted them to draw better, we wanted them to do well. And with the renewed interest, hockey is on everyone’s mind, winning is on everyone’s mind, and that’s what were trying to get back to is winning championships.
We have felt the effects of the Hawks, it’s made us successful because more people are interested in hockey, it’s at the forefront and it’s great for us, we always want the Hawks to do well. Nothing would be better than if both of us won a championship in the same season.
Banks: what are the dynamics of the relationship with the Blackhawks?
Young: we have a great relationship with the Hawks. We’re on a great basis with them and vice versa. We go to their games, they go to our games we feel feel were in the hockey business together, we’re not in competition.
No, generally they’re not in competition. However, tonight was a special occasion. The Chicago Blackhawks and Wolves don’t usually have home games on the same night, just like the Cubs and White Sox rarely have overlapping home stands. But this was a special treat, playoff hockey, on the same night, both at home. So I talked with some of the people that chose the Chicago Wolves over the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Chicago Wolves lost to the Rochester Americans 7-2 before a paid attendance of 3.473. (They did draw over 4,400 the previous night) The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Minnesota Wild 5-2 before a paid attendance of 22,116. These numbers are pertaining to tickets sold, the actual number of people who showed up, at both 1901 W Madison and 6920 N Mannheim.
As you might have figured out by now, this article focuses on the underdog. So I went out the building I’ll always know as the “Rosemont Horizon” to see what kind of fans were there cheering for the underdog tonight.
I ran into a local where the husband was sporting a Chicago Blackhawks jersey (Duncan Keith) and the wife was wearing a Chicago Wolves sweater (Luke Sellars). Mario and Jaime Arena of Buffalo Grove came out to support the Wolves.
“We have a season ticket package,” said Mario Arena, 37.
“Always stay for every sporting event, the entire time, win or lose.”
I wondered if there were any fans “doing the double” tonight- hitting up both games. That’s not feasible, you’d only get to see one whole period of each that way.
“Hawks tickets are too expensive for the playoffs,” said Jamie Arena, 32.
Very true. And you don’t even get to hear Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” and Motley Crue’s “Kickstart My Heart” (both numerous times) like you can at the Chicago Wolves games.
There are numerous links between the Chicago Wolves and Chicago Blackhawks: Troy Murray, Al Secord, Chris Chelios, Steve Konroyd, Eddie Olczyk, 1994 Team USE Winter Olympics hero Ray LeBlanc just to name a few.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also a regular commentator on talk radio all across the country. Banks has also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)