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Thanks, and go Hawks!

The Blackhawks celebrate after defeating the Vancouver Canucks in overtime, 4-3, on Ben Smith’s goal in Game 6 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals on April 24, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images).

Left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Mac Carruth, Rob Flick, Mirko Hoefflin and Byron Froese.

A quartet of the Blackhawks prospects remain in the Memorial Cup mix across all three of the Canadian Hockey League member leagues – the Western Hockey, Ontario Hockey and Québec Major Junior Hockey League.

Rob Flick of the OHL’s Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors has 8 points (3G, 5A), 15 PIM and a +4 rating through the team’s first eight playoff games, including this goal in Game 3 (at 1:17 of video). Mississauga swept the Belleville Bulls and Sudbury Wolves in the first two rounds of the OHL playoffs and now awaits the winner of the Niagara IceDogs and Oshawa Generals in the Eastern Conference Final – the winner of which they will play for the OHL title.

In the WHL, both Blackhawks representatives find themselves on opposite ends of a 3-1 series. Portland Winterhawks goaltender Mac Carruth has won 7-of-8 games in the postseason so far, including one shutout, 2.75 GAA and .920 SV%, as Portland holds a 3-1 series lead over the Kelowna Rockets in the second round.

Byron Froese helped his Red Deer Rebels avoid a sweep from the Medicine Hat Tigers in the WHL’s second round as he netted the only goal in a 1-0 victory (at 2:26 of video). Froese has 5 points (4G, A), 4 PIM and a +1 plus/minus in eight postseason tilts.

The Blackhawks’ sixth-round pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, Mirko Hoefflin has 10 points (2G, 8A), 6 PIM and a plus-8 through eight games for the Québec Ramparts of the QMJHL. Québec leads the Shawinigan Cataractes in their second-round, best-of-four series 3-1.

The winning club of all three leagues will play for the CHL’s coveted Mastercard Memorial Cup, along with Mississauga, which gets an automatic bid as this year’s host city. The four teams will race for the Memorial Cup May 19-29.

The Chicago Blackhawks took to the ice today at Rogers Arena in Vancouver for their first practice before they take on the Vancouver Canucks tomorrow in Vancouver.

- Forward Ben Smith, on scoring his first NHL goal during Friday’s 4-2 win in Detroit.

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Bolland

Blackhawks center Dave Bolland, who has been sidelined since early March with an upper-body injury, has returned to a skating regimen, and head coach Joel Quenneville said Friday that the team is pleased with his progress.

“Bolly is progressing at a different pace than we saw before, which is encouraging,” Quenneville said.

The 24-year-old center has missed 12 game since leaving the Hawks’ March 9 contest against Tampa Bay, in which he took an elbow from Lightning defenseman Pavel Kubina. Kubina was given a three-game suspension for the collision.

In 61 games this season, Bolland has 15 goals and 22 assists, to go with a +11 plus/minus rating.