Eagles Leave Home With Series Tied

LOVELAND, Colo. – After a rough night in Game 1 of the Pacific Division Semifinals, the Colorado Eagles were looking to bounce back in Game 2 against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The Eagles would need to play a heavier and stronger game in order to get the results they wanted. But, not all hope was lost after only one loss. Colorado could leave Loveland with the series tied and make life extremely difficult for the higher-seeded Coachella Valley.

First Period

It was a physical game once again, as hits were being thrown in every direction on the ice in period number one. Kale Kessy led the charge, laying down a huge hit to start the game in the corner. The crowd definitely loved it.

Colorado would open the scoring in the best way possible. Right after Sampo Ranta went to the box for interference after a massive hit into the boards, Cedric Paré stepped up. With about five and half minutes left, there was a faceoff in the neutral zone. A missed pass to Brogan Rafferty led to Paré on a breakaway, snapping it past goaltender Joey Daccord.

“I practice that shot a lot,” said Paré postgame. “I was pretty confident about that.  We have three scouts, so you know where to shoot on goalies. So, that kind of thing helped me. I was just trying to shoot high there.”

It wouldn’t take long for the Firebirds to retaliate. Just 45 seconds later, Ryker Evans would take a hard shot from the point to nail a power play goal past goaltender Jonas Johansson and tie the game at one.

Second Period 

The back and forth continued through the second frame, but Colorado picked up the pace a bit. The Eagles started to open the neutral zone up and make progress getting through. Unfortunately, the Firebirds made a strong effort late in the period and were able to take advantage of a dominant shift. With six and half minutes left, Shane Wright ran behind the Eagles net to separate himself from the defenseman. As he did so, a seam opened in the slot for Luke Henman to rush in from the point and slam it in to make it 2-1.

Later in the period, with just three seconds left, Colorado would even the score once more. Paré took a hard shot from the high slot that bounced off Daccord’s pads to Josh Jacobs at the left point. Jacobs finished the job and made it a 2-2 tie.

Around The AHL

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• Wranglers Advance, Set To Play Coachella Valley This Week
• Eagles Lose Game 5, Eliminated From Playoffs
• Expanded AHL Playoffs Don’t Quite Pay Off
• Firebirds Tie Series on True’s Shorthanded Stunner

Third Period

The Eagles did a great job from the beginning of the third onward to shut down the Firebirds in all zones of the ice. Coachella Valley was having trouble getting out of their own zone with a heavy forecheck coming from Colorado. As the game started to wind down, the Eagles were throwing as much rubber on net as they could.

With exactly four minutes left in regulation, Colorado was dominating the shift. Callahan Burke took the shot from the blue line to set up Mikhail Maltsev for a rebound. Maltsev gathered it up and pushed a weak dribbler through Daccord’s five-hole to take the lead and ultimately win the game, 3-2.

Conclusion

On Thursday night, the Eagles played a lot better than they did in Game 1. Colorado started moving through the neutral zone with more ease and matching the Firebirds hit for hit. When coach Greg Cronin was asked about the play of his squad compared to Game 1, he said:

“Well, last night we just didn’t play our game. We were slow to pucks. We had this casual illness. The compete level wasn’t what it needed to be for us to be successful.

“The players actually met before I came in this morning to talk about it. The message after the game was: ‘That’s unacceptable.’  We don’t play in front of our crowd or anywhere else at a casual pace. I give Coachella credit. They played hard style hockey last night [Wednesday] that we didn’t match.

“So, the message was loud and clear. It’s something that we’re comfortable doing, and we got right after it early in the game today.”

The Eagles now take a tied series into Coachella Valley for Game 3 on Sunday (3:00pm PT / 4:00pm MT) and Game 4 on Wednesday, May 3 (7:00pm PT / 8:00pm MT). If necessary, the two teams will play an all-deciding Game 5 on Friday, May 5 (7:00pm PT / 8:00pm MT).