With a 5-3 win over the Ducks the Blackhawks are headed to the Stanley Cup Final!
The week fellow Tribune photographer Brian Cassella and I traveled to Anaheim to photograph Game 7 of the Western Conference Final. This whole series has been absolutely incredible with both teams playing some of the best hockey I’ve ever seen, so it was both exciting and dramatic to have it come down to a single match.
Brian had already covered both games 1 and 2 of the series in Anaheim and so he was already familiar with the stadium when we arrived, which was very helpful. One of the cool things about traveling for hockey is the ability to put up remote cameras in the catwalks above the ice to give readers a different vantage point on the game. Except for the Stanley Cup series, the United Center back in Chicago doesn’t allow us to put cameras in the catwalks, so it’s fun when we get to do something a little different.
We arrived around 1 p.m. for the game and got to work setting everything up. Since there were two of us photographing the game Brian placed one remote camera above one goal and I had mine above the other. That way, even if we get blocked on a shot, we’ve got both ends covered. The setup process involves clamping a camera on what’s known as a magic arm to the catwalk railings. We attach steel safety cables to every part of the rig so that if any part of the support should fail nothing’s going to come down onto the ice. The camera is triggered by a PocketWizard remote, but it can only fire the camera, not make adjustments to it. We pre-set the exposure and focus on the goal, tape everything down, then walk away and hope it works.
Looking back though my frames after the win it was interesting to see each goal from both the camera I was holding in my hands as well as the one above. From the ice level you see the players reactions on their faces, but you’re often blocked when there’s a flurry of activity around the goal. The overhead camera gives a wonderfully clean look at just how every goal went.
Now it’s on to Tampa Bay to face the Lightening. Here’s hoping the Hawks can keep it up.
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