VICTORIOUS

CHICAGO IS FEELING GOOD TODAY

The Blackhawks are Stanley Cup champions, and how sweet it is. Pat Kane's goal in overtime last night sealed the deal for a team that has been enveloped in non-stop attention and TV coverage for three months now. Although no one else was sure if it was a goal, Kane knew it, and his attitude pretty much sums up the Hawks' season: NO DOUBT.

The team arrived at O'Hare just before 4am and they have been partying with the fans since, making bar stops at Harry Caray's of Rosemont and they left Pony's Restaurant and are going to another location now.

The players weren't the only one's celebrating, though. Fans clogged the streets, dancing and cheering for what is Chicago's first championship in five years for Sox fans, but everyone else has been waiting since 1998 when the Bulls won. Wrigleyville seemed to be the location choice, as traffic stopped on Clark St. and fans attempted to tip a police truck.

The celebration will continue, as the Blackhawks are having their victory parade and rally tomorrow on Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue. The parade will begin somewhere between 11am and 11:30am. We need all Hawks fans there! Here is the map for the Parade route:



It is really amazing what the Hawks have done. In three years they have gone from the laughing stock of the NHL, to Stanley Cup Champions. They've done so much for the sport and for their fans. What an amazing story they have put together: it will be told for years and years.

Congratulations to the players, coaches and staff along with their families. Congrats to all of the Hawks fans, especially the ones who have been waiting 49 years for this. Thanks to Rocky Wirtz for taking this team where it has. Thanks to Joel Quennville, Jonathan Toews, and the rest of the Hawks staff and players. It feels different saying this as Stanley Cup Champions: GO HAWKS!!!

Hawks play to clinch on Wednesday

Despite roughing out a series that has, so far, been much more difficult than the series' against San Jose and Vancouver, the Hawks are in Philly, set to play on Wednesday, June, 9, 2010, with ONE GOAL: to bring the Stanley Cup home. The Blackhawks made the series 3-2 in a fairly uncontested win on Sunday after a string of very close games.

The Hawks are being careful not to be too optimistic, though, as they are yet to win a game in Philly this series.

The battle between Chris Pronger and "Big Buff" will likely continue, they guarentee it. Pronger displayed sarcasm to the media after Game 5, saying, "I'm hurt. My feeling are hurt." The two have been going at it from the very beginning.

The puck drops tomorrow at 7pm midwest time on NBC Network TV (Ch 5 in Chicago) and Radio 720 WGN (Chicago, IL).

The Perfect Day

Chicago sports were rockin' on Saturday as the city's sports teams went 4-0 in some thrilling games, two of them being playoff games.

The Bulls started their playoff series with the Celtics in Boston. The two teams fought hard all game and would go to overtime where the Bulls would prevail. Rose scored more points in that game than Michael Jordan scored in his first Bulls playoff game. The Bulls won the game by a score of 105-103. It was a team effort as Rose showed great leadership and the Bulls now lead the series, 1-0.

The Blackhawks went into Saturday's game with a 1-0 lead on Calgary after an OT thriller a few nights ago. The Hawks played very bad at the beginning of the game as they were losing 2-0. The Hawks later woke up and mounted a comeback and went on to win the game with a tally of 3-2. Jonathan Toews, Blackhawk captain, scored two of the Hawks' three goals, his first career playoff goals.

On the North Side the Cubs got set to take tto the field against the hated Cardinals. The regular season series with a playoff athmosphere was tied at 1-1. Ryan Dempster had the start for the Cubbies and struggled early as the Cubs went down 4-0. The Cubs would mount a slow comeback that was capped by a D-Lee triple and the Cubs went up 5-4. The Cardinals sent the game into Extra Innings at 5-5. Neither team scored until the bottom of the 11th when Aramis Ramirez stepped to the plate and delivered a walk-off homerun to win the game. Final score, 7-5.

The White Sox were in Tampa to play the Rays. The Sox went up early and their pitching pinned the Rays to only 3 runs. Mark Buehrle pitched seven innings of good baseball and Paul Konerko homed and collected three RBI's as the Sox polished a nice win in Tampa, 8-3.

It was an exciting day in Chicago sports that featured overtimes, comebacks, records being broken, and walk-off homeruns. Go Chicago!