Morning Chirps: Lardis turns heads, Olympic hockey fever

We are all about Olympic hockey here as the men’s tournament kicked off yesterday. There are four more games today, while the women play the final game of their preliminary round to set up the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, closer to home, the AHL All-Star Classic was a big success in Rockford.

Blackhawks Chirps

• The Rockford IceHogs hosted the AHL All-Star Classic last night in front of a sold-out crowd at the BMO Center. The Pacific Division won the event for the third time in the last three years, beating the Central Division in the Championship Game. The AHL uses a different format from the NHL, in which each division plays every other division in games with two four-minute periods. The top two teams advance to the finals for league supremacy.

• The Central Division’s first game was a 2-1 shootout win over the Atlantic Division. Nick Lardis scored an unassisted goal in the first period before winning the game with this nasty goal in the shootout.

• From there, the Central lost 3-2 to the North Division. IceHogs’ captain Brett Seney scored late in the first period to tie the game. Their last round-robin game was a 4-0 win over the Pacific Division. Seney and Lardis both had a goal and an assist.

• The Pacific won the rematch 3-1 to win the All-Star Classic. Colorado Eagles forward Jayson Megna, brother of former Blackhawks defenseman Jaycob Megna, was named the night’s MVP with four goals and seven points.

• On this date in 1964, Eric Nesterenko scored his 150th career goal, while Bill Hay hit the lamp twice in a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers.

• In 1975, Tony Esposito beat the Boston Bruins 8-3 to become the 17th goaltender in NHL history to win 200 games. Jim Pappin netted his sixth career hat trick, while Ivan Boldirev had a goal and three assists.

• Two years later, Dick Redmond became the first defenseman in franchise history to score a hat trick in a 4-2 win over the Colorado Rockies.

• In 1988, Denis Savard reached the 100-point plateau with a goal and three assists in a 4-3 victory against the St. Louis Blues. This was the fifth and final 100-point season of his Hall of Fame Career.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll, Feb. 12: Wayne Smith, Brad Werenka, Curtis Brown, and Remi Royer.

NHL & Olympics Chirps

• The men’s Olympic tournament finally started yesterday with a pair of intriguing games from Group B. Check out our full recap of day one, which saw two great goaltending performances, an upset, and a major scare.

• In a tidbit from yesterday's action, the Boston Bruins had to activate forward Elias Lindholm in order for him to play for Sweden. He missed the Bruins' final three games before the Winter Games with an upper-body injury. The Olympic break roster freeze does not include activations from injured reserve.

• The Athletic’s Michael Russo wrote a great story about Alan Roach, the public address announcer for the Olympic hockey tournament. Not only is he the PA announcer for Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Vikings games, but he’s also done the last 18 Super Bowls.

• On the women’s side, Canada and Finland will make up their postponed game this morning, wrapping up the preliminary round. The result of this game will finalize the quarterfinal matchups. We already Team USA will play Italy on Friday. The other three games will be known once today’s game concludes.

• Jeff Marek probably ruffled some feathers among Rangers fans after his recent comments about J.T. Miller.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, Feb. 12: Mike Robitaille, Russ Anderson, Bobby Smith, Michel Petit, Owen Nolan, Rico Fata, Oleg Saprykin, Jonas Hiller, Stefan Noesen, and Alex Galchenyuk.