St. Charles Native Makes St. Louis NHL Debut

-native and Chicago Blackhawks winger Brandon Bollig wasted little time in making his presence felt during the St. Louis Blues' 5-1 win over the Hawks Tuesday evening. 

Bollig, a graduate, and Blues right winger Ryan Reaves rekindled a past dispute and dropped their gloves less than four minutes into the game.

Bollig landed more than a dozen punches on Reaves as the two batted in the eventual draw.

The 25-year-old Bollig, who played for the Junior Blues as a teen, logged just more than five minutes on the ice and seven penalty minutes during the game. When all was said and done, he finished a minus-1 for the game.

The Blackhawks signed Bollig April 3, 2010 to a minor league contract and recalled him to the NHL squad on Feb. 29. Serving mainly as an enforcer, he's logged 14 penalty minutes in just four games this season.

Tuesday's game was his first NHL game in front of friends and family.

From the Chicago Blackhawks' website:

"Not only am I living a dream playing with the Hawks right now and getting my first crack in the NHL, but I'm lucky enough to come here to St. Louis and playing in front of my hometown crowd," said Bollig, who has seven penalty minutes in three games. "I'm pretty excited. I've got a lot of people coming and I can't wait to get going."

Growing up, Bollig began skating in nearby Creve Coeur before the got a program of its own. He tried out for the Triple-A Junior Blues, then went on to play Junior-A and onto Rockford before getting his chance with the Blackhawks after they dealt away popular John Scott at the NHL Trade Deadline.

"I think I was more nervous when I thought about playing in front of my home crowd, but now that it's actually time to do it, I'm sure once game time comes around, I'll be a little bit nervous," Bollig said. "Hopefully I just look at it as another game and kind of take it as that."

Bollig said there will be 50-plus people in attendance Tuesday night, but he didn't have to purchase the entire ticket count. 

Bollig, according to the Blackhawks, registered a career-high six assists and nine points in 53 contests with the Rockford Ice Hogs this season, and ranked seventh in the AHL with a team-high 163 penalty minutes at the time of his promotion.