CRAWFORD VS. BISHOP: ROOTS GOING BACK TO THE AHL

Rockford, Ill- Entering the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning square off with Game 1 starting Wednesday, June 3 in Tampa. A major reason why these two respective teams are in the position to win it all is the play of their goaltenders.

Former Rockford IceHogs and current Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford will face off with Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Ben Bishop in this best of seven series. It is not the first time these two esteemed goalies have squared off, as they met when they both played in the American Hockey League during the 2009-10 season while Crawford was with the IceHogs and Bishop was with the Peoria Rivermen. They battled twice during that season with Crawford and Bishop splitting the two games.

The first contest took place Oct. 24, 2009 and resulted in Bishop taking the win, turning away 22 shots in Peoria’s 5-2 triumph. Crawford took the loss despite making 36 saves.

Their next encounter was quite the opposite in which Crawford earned the win making 29 saves in Rockford’s 4-2 win on Jan. 29, 2010.

These two Stanley Cup participants have squared off twice in the NHL heading into the Final, occurring on Oct. 5, 2013 and Nov. 11, 2014. Like when they met in the AHL, they split both games they played against each other. In those games Crawford had a .906 save percentage and a 2.00 goals against average seeing far less shots than Bishop in both contests. Bishop, the 6’7 goaltender, sported a .948 SPCT and a similar 2.00 GAA in those games.

Crawford is Rockford’s all-time wins leader in between the pipes. In three seasons, between the years 2007-2010, Crawford accumulated 75 wins in 147 games played, with a 2.70 GAA and .911 SPCT.

Bishop appeared in 20 games versus Rockford, all with Peoria in four seasons. Bishop compiled a record of 11-8-0-0 in his time with the Rivermen against the IceHogs and had a GAA of 2.34 to go along with an overall SPCT of .939.

Below is a breakdown of which goaltenders the IceHogs have faced the most during the team's AHL era:

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