CHL Colorado Eagles

Colorado Eagles 2007-08 Season in Review

Published on May 12, 2008 under Central Hockey League (CHL)
Colorado Eagles News Release


WINDSOR, Colo. - With our Fifth Anniversary Season in the books, we take a look back at a fifth consecutive successful year of Colorado Eagles Hockey. Although the ultimate goal of winning back-to-back President's Cup Championships fell just out of reach, there is no doubt that, overall, the 2007-08 season was a success. Not only did the Eagles make it to the President's Cup Finals for the third time in four years, but they won their fifth consecutive Northwest Division title and overcame more than their share of adversity throughout the year.

Preseason

After winning the President's Cup in 2007, the Eagles were faced with plenty of adversity in the offseason. Team founder - and hockey legend - Ralph Backstrom announced his retirement after 53 years in the sport of hockey, and head coach Chris Stewart underwent major back surgery. In addition to the ensuing recuperation and absence, Stewart took on the additional roles of President and General Manager with Backstrom's retirement.

Regular Season

The Eagles opened the season with two high-scoring losses to the eventual champion Arizona Sundogs before playing their home opener on October 23rd. Prior to their 6-2 victory over the Tulsa Oilers in the home opener, Colorado honored their founder, Ralph Backstrom, by raising his jersey to the Budweiser Events Center rafters. Assistant coach Ryan Bach led the team out of the chutes as Interim Head Coach while Stewart recuperated from his offseason surgery.

Colorado got off to a solid start, but was crippled by injuries to Ryan Tobler, Fraser Filipic and Chris Hartsburg (who retired as a result) and couldn't keep up with their in-state rival Rocky Mountain Rage. The Rage were the hottest team in the league for the first half of the season, earning their coaching staff the honor of working the All-Star Game in their own building. Stewart returned to the bench on December 21st in a 4-2 win over the Wichita Thunder, and the Eagles soon soared to the top of the Division. By the end of the year, Colorado would nudge out the Rage for the Northwest Division crown, despite trailing the Broomfield-based team by as many as 10 points earlier in the year.

The Eagles set a remarkable record on January 12 - in a critical 6-5 victory over Rocky Mountain - by selling out the 5,289-seat Budweiser Events Center for the 145th consecutive time in the regular season; the feat marked a new record for consecutive sellouts in all of North American minor pro hockey. In late January, Colorado made two separate deals with the Wichita Thunder that would help propel them to the CHL Finals. The first deal brought winger Kris Wiebe, and the second sent Mike Lukajic and Marco Emond to the Thunder for starting goalie Sebastien Laplante. The Eagles made one more move before the trade deadline - sending Paul Esdale to Corpus Christi - to make room for Scott Polaski's return from the IR as team got completely healthy for the first time all year.

On February 23rd, the Eagles and CHL announced that the 2009 All-Star Game will be played at the BEC, in addition to an exciting new format in which the host team will take on the rest of the league's All-Stars. The format change harkens back to the original NHL All-Star contests, where the defending champions would take on the All-Stars the following year.

As the season wound down, the Eagles and Rage battled fiercely for first place - including several head-to-head contests - with the Eagles securing the division with a shootout loss to the Youngstown SteelHounds on the season's final day. That loss would make the Eagles the 2nd seed in the North and the SteelHounds the 3rd, meaning the two teams would face-off in the first round of the playoffs.

Playoffs

Colorado would go on to defeat the SteelHounds in five games behind the strength of two Laplante shutouts, setting up a meeting with the Texas Brahmas in the Conference Finals; the Brahmas were coming off a sweep of the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs (winners of the Governors' Cup with the best regular season record). The Eagles and Brahmas played a hard-fought (sometimes overly feisty) series that took seven games to decide. Both captain Greg Pankewicz and defenseman Jay Birnie would have to sit out the successful Game 7 and the first two games of the Finals due to suspensions coming from a Game 6 post-game brawl.

The Eagles would defend their title against the Arizona Sundogs in the President's Cup Finals, being without home ice advantage for the first tie in team history. The Sundogs' roster featured seven players that spent time with AHL affiliates throughout the year, had the CHL's regular season and playoff scoring leader in Alex Leavitt and the late-season additions of record-setting forward Cory Urquhart and Playoff MVP Rob McVicar in net. The opportunistic Sundogs (Arizona's team-wide shooting percentage for the series was .167) swept the Eagles in four games behind the combination of their group of young, skilled forwards and McVicar's stellar play in goal to put an end to the Eagles' dreams of keeping The Cup in Colorado.

Season Highlights:

October 19th & 20th: Ryan Tobler reaches 500 professional points & 200 professional goals respectively

October 23rd: Home Opener/Ralph Backstrom's career recognized & jersey retired

October 27th: Grand Opening of Inspiration Playground in Fort Collins

November 10th: Eagles net 100th win at Budweiser Events Center

December 28th: Greg Pankewicz and Aaron Schneekloth are named CHL All-Star Starters

January 12th: Eagles set new record for consecutive sellouts in minor pro hockey (145)

February 23rd: Announcement of 2009 CHL All-Star Game (held at BEC, old-style format)

March 8th: Colorado dominates League's "Best of the Best" Poll (highlighted by Best Fans & Toughest Building to Win in for fourth year in a row)

March 10th: Aaron Schneekloth one of four finalists for Most Outstanding Defenseman

March 18th: Aaron Schneekloth named to All-CHL Team

March 20th: Chris Stewart receives CHL's Rick Kozuback Award

March 22nd: Eagles win fifth straight Northwest Division title, earn 2nd seed in playoffs

April 13th: Sebastien Laplante ties CHL record with 3rd playoff shutout in 2-0 win against Texas

April 23rd: Colorado earns place in President's Cup Finals for third time in four years

Check out the Colorado Eagles Statistics

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Central Hockey League Stories from May 12, 2008


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