CHL Colorado Eagles

Bridges gets 1st CHL win, 4-2 over Thunder

Published on December 21, 2007 under Central Hockey League (CHL)
Colorado Eagles News Release


LOVELAND, Colo. - With Chris Stewart back behind the bench, the Colorado Eagles beat the Wichita Thunder 4-2, registering a season-high 55 shots in the process. Bryan Bridges made his first start in the CHL (after playing 45 minutes in relief of Ian Keserich last weekend) and made several big saves in stopping 26 of 28 shots.

Just like the last meeting between these two teams, the Eagles came out firing in the first. Through 15 minutes of play, Colorado out-shot Wichita by a margin of 15-1. But in that time, Thunder goaltender Jon Horrell kept the Eagles off the scoreboard, and the one save Bridges made was a great one -- sprawled out on his stomach, he snared a shot from in close with his glove. The scoreboard finally got some action at 17:06, on the Eagles 16th shot of the first. Brett Thurston collected the puck in the defensive zone and banked a pass through the left side of the neutral zone to Dave Iannazzo. Iannazzo then sent a quick pass to Seth Leonard who split the defense and went top shelf.

Alex Goupil got the Thunder on the board at 3:05 after a Bruce Richards shot from the right boards deflected off a skate in front and right onto the tape of Goupil's stick. Ed McGrane put Colorado back on top with a garbage goal at 16:02. Paul Esdale entered the zone along the left boards, skated around the defender with a delay move and threw a pass to Greg Pankewicz in the left circle. The Eagles captain put the puck on net and it knocked around before a crashing McGrane got enough of it to push it across the goal line. Iannazzo made it 3-1 at 19:22 (after hitting the post earlier in the period) when a Riley Nelson rebound found him in the low slot.

At 13:45 of the third, McGrane scored the Eagles' second short-handed goal of the season (and his second goal of the night) after stealing the puck in the low right circle. He spun and fired the puck past Horrell to put Colorado up 4-1. Wichita's Travis Clayton got a historic goal at 18:07 when he pounced on a puck that Bridges thought he had covered in the crease. The goal -- his 313th -- moved Clayton into second place in CHL history, passing former Thunder star Paul Jackson.

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Central Hockey League Stories from December 21, 2007


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