CHL Colorado Eagles

Colorado Eagles Week In Review

Published on February 1, 2010 under Central Hockey League (CHL)
Colorado Eagles News Release


Week in Review

Wednesday, January 27; Eagles Trade for Goaltender Gajewski

WINDSOR, Colo. - The Colorado Eagles announced today that they have completed a trade with the Laredo Bucks, acquiring goaltender Kyle Gajewski (pronounced: guh-jew-ski) in exchange for future considerations. Gajewski will add depth in net with the recent AHL call-up of Andrew Penner.

"We are being proactive in acquiring another quality player at a position where you can never have enough depth," said Eagles President and General Manager Chris Stewart. "We believe Kyle is a very good goalie and, in fact, this is not the first time we've had interest in him. We were in discussions over the summer with his agent and we're happy to finally welcome him to Northern Colorado."

In four seasons (2004-05 thru 2007-08) with the Sault Saint Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League, Gajewski played in 214 games, increasing his win total each year. In all, he went 114-71-21 with 12 shutouts, a goals-against average of 2.72 and a save percentage of.906. The London, Ontario native was named an All-Star in his final season in the league.

The second-year pro comes to the Eagles with a career record of 17-16-4, a goals-against average of 3.71 and a save percentage of.884. He has played in 13 games this season for Laredo, going 5-5-2 with the team's only shutout, a 3.96 GAA and a.883 SV%.

Wednesday, January 27; Eagles Waive Goaltender Cey

WINDSOR, Colo. - The Colorado Eagles announced today that they have waived goaltender Morgan Cey. The netminder was signed on Jan. 14 to back-up Mike Mole after Andrew Penner was called-up to the AHL; Cey did not play in any games. Cey's spot on the roster will be filled by Kyle Gajewski, whom the Eagles acquired in a trade with Laredo this morning.

Cey spent the 2008-09 season with the Eagles, posting a record of 15-9-1 with a goals-against average of 3.40 and a save percentage of.897. Since the end of last season, the Notre Dame alumnus has been working as the goaltending instructor for the Northern Colorado Youth Hockey Junior Eagles at the NoCo Ice Center.

Wednesday, January 27; Eagles Head Onto Road With Win

LOVELAND, Colo. - The Colorado Eagles doubled-up the Amarillo Gorillas, 6-3, tonight in the third straight meeting between the two teams. With the victory, the Eagles overtook the Rapid City Rush for first place in the Northern Conference. Colorado now hits the road for a season-high tying seven-game road trip.

The first period saw tempers flare as the teams skated on the same slab for the third time in five days. Jason Beatty, Fraser Filipic and Alex Penner all dropped the gloves -- and came out on the better end -- against Jason Beeman, Chris Cloud and Neil Smith respectively.

When the teams weren't trading punches, they were trading goals. Andrew Smale got the scoring started at 3:36 after a turnover in the right corner allowed Austin Sutter to hit Smale with a quick pass in the slot. But the Eagles countered exactly 30 seconds later when Ed McGrane used his speed to create what amounted to a penalty shot from the blue line in before beating Tuomas Lohtander with a forehand move.

Both teams scored a power-play goal in the second period, but the Eagles also added an even-strength score to take a 3-2 lead into the third frame. Smale picked up his second goal of the game at 3:19 when his blast from the left point made it through a screen in front of Mike Mole and into the back of the net.

Jay Birnie tied the game up at 2 with a highlight-reel backhander just under three minutes later when he placed the puck into the top left corner from the right slot. Things kept going the Eagles' way midway through the period when Mole stopped a shorthanded rush for Amarillo that sprung Colorado on their own the other way. Jim Jackson sent a backhand, saucer pass from the right wing to the left, where Ryan Tobler beat Lohtander over his right shoulder to make it 3-2.

The Eagles added three more in the third to run away with the game, starting with Riley Nelson netting what turned out to be the game-winner at 5:37. On the play, Tobler took the puck down the left wing and dished it to Kevin Ulanski in the circle. The rebound from his shot went off of Lohtander's leg pad and arced into the air where Nelson swatted it home from 10 feet in front of the net with a spinning swing.

Brett Lutes then made it 5-2 just over a minute later when he converted a cross-slot pass from McGrane with a one-timer. Stuart MacRae -- Amarillo's leading scorer -- cut the home team's lead back down to two with under two minutes left in the game by capitalizing on a 3-on-1 rush that went tic-tac-toe from the left wing to the right.

And with just 11 seconds left in the game, McGrane added an empty-net score for his second goal in the game, leaving the crowd happy with free Wendy's courtesy of the Wendy's Six Goal Shootout.

Friday, January 29; Eagles Fans Help Raise Over $8K for Haiti Relief

LOVELAND, Colo. - The Colorado Eagles announced today that their fans helped raise a total of $8,100 for the American Red Cross' Haiti relief efforts. In an attempt to help as quickly as possible, and with just one home game in the near future, the team announced last Friday that it would donate 100 percent of the proceeds from the remaining ticket sales to this past Wednesday's game to the cause.

Through those ticket sales, $7,250 was raised. In addition, a station was set up on the concourse where the Red Cross collected donations and auctioned off a team-signed Eagles plaque. The plaque was sold for $600 and an additional $250 was collected through pure donations.

The entire organization would like to thank its fans for their continued generosity and compassion. The team's next home game will be Friday, Feb. 12 when they return from a seven-game road trip.

Friday, January 29; Eagles Start Road Trip With OT Win

TULSA, Okla. - The Colorado Eagles began their seven-game road trip with a 4-3, overtime victory against the Tulsa Oilers. Kevin Ulanski -- the league's leading point producer -- padded his total with a three point night (2-1-3) and Aaron Schneekloth scored the game-winner with a power-play goal just 35 seconds into overtime to keep the Eagles atop the Northern Conference.

Both teams scored a goal in the first period to enter the intermission with a tied score. Ulanski got the opening goal at 3:32 with a power-play blast from the right point. But the Oilers answered at 9:13 when Aaron Davis sent a pass from below the goal line to an open Jeff Gumaer in front of Mike Mole for an uncontested shot.

The Eagles got an early goal in the second period, but the Oilers added two midway through to take a 3-2 lead into the third period. Just 31 seconds into the second stanza, Ed McGrane took a feed in the slot from Brett Lutes and made it 2-1 for the visitors by beating Trevor Cann.

Then at 13:42, Davis tied it back up with Tulsa on a two-man advantage. The veteran forward's cross-crease pass attempt deflected off of Schneekloth and into the net. And just over three minutes later, TJ Caig made it 3-2 coming out of the penalty box. The Oilers' leading scorer was sent on a breakaway coming out of the sin bin and, after Mole stopped his initial shot, Caig reached back and was able to tap his rebound over the goal line.

The game continued to be tightly contested in the third and Ulanski got his second score of the game to tie it up again at 3. At 7:59, Riley Nelson and Ulanski teamed up on the penalty kill when the latter bobbled the puck heading behind the net, picked it back up and tucked it inside the post before the Oilers' goalie could get back. True to form, the game would go into overtime with each team registering the same amount of shots at 31.

But it would take the Eagles only one more shot -- and just 35 more seconds -- in the extra session to end it when Schneekloth scored on a 5-on-3 power play that had carried over from regulation, with a shot from inside the left faceoff circle.

Saturday, January 30; Eagles Gain Point, Lose in OT

BOSSIER CITY, La. - The Colorado Eagles were involved in a 4-3, overtime game decided by a power-play goal for the second night in a row, but this time they fell to the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs. The win marked the 'Bugs' first in 10 games against the Eagles (including last season's playoff series), although nine of the 10 were decided by just one goal.

The Eagles hit two posts early in the opening period while on two separate power plays, and John DeCaro stopped all 11 of their other shots in the frame to keep Colorado off the scoreboard. And after Scott Kalinchuk scored off a Mark Johnson rebound at 9:51, the 'Bugs took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

Mike Mole stole the show in the second period as the Eagles' netminder stopped all 16 Bossier-Shreveport shots in the frame, many in spectacular fashion. His performance was highlighted by the best save of the year by an Eagles goalie when he robbed Travis Clayton midway through, falling back in the crease and gloving the veteran's shot at the goal line.

His teammates were doing their part at the other end of the ice as well, as Colorado scored three goals in the second 20 minutes of action. Jim Jackson tied the game at 1 with a power-play tally 2:09 in when he took a cross-ice feed from Riley Nelson and beat the 'Bugs netminder.

And just under a minute later, Steve Haddon made it 2-1 by knocking home a rebound from the right side of the crease (the point was his 120th as an Eagle, moving him into a tie for 10th place on the franchise's all-time list). Then at 8:43, Ryan Tobler put in another power-play goal off assists from Kevin Ulanski and Ed McGrane to cap the period's scoring.

The strong second period wasn't enough, however, as the Mudbugs responded with three unanswered goals of their own -- the final one coming in overtime. Simon Mangos cut Colorado's lead to 3-2 with a power-play goal 2:18 into the third period before Jeff Kyrzakos forced overtime with a shot from the low slot at 10:47.

Clayton got his revenge on Mole at 3:59 of the extra session when he took the puck through the neutral zone, entered the offensive zone and beat the Eagles' goalie with a shot from the high slot on the power play.

Colorado is now 1-0-1 on their seven-game road trip; their next contest comes on Tuesday against the Missouri Mavericks.

The Week Ahead

Tuesday, February 2; Eagles Continue Road Trip in Missouri The Eagles will continue their seven-game road trip with the third contest coming in Missouri against the expansion Mavericks. Colorado is 4-0-0 so far against the Mavs, with two two more games remaining in the season series (both on the road). Colorado put up six goals in the first three games and five in the last in out-scoring Missouri 23-9 so far. Entering the week, the Mavs are just outside the final playoff spot in the Northern Conference with 41 points, one behind Tulsa.

Friday, February 5 & Saturday, February 6; Clash of the Conference Elite Colorado heads to Odessa for a weekend set against the CHL and Southern Conference-leading Jackalopes. The 'Jacks open the week with a record of 34-6-4 (72 points and a.818 winning percentage). They have earned that record by ranking second in the league in both goals-for (4.14) and goals-against (2.73) in the league. In their only previous meeting this season, the Eagles defeated the Jackalopes, 2-1, in a shootout at the Budweiser Events Center.

Notable Numbers

UNLIKELY LOSS - Colorado's overtime loss to the Mudbugs on Saturday went against several statistical trends. The most obvious is that the Eagles had won the previous nine meetings between the two clubs, but it also marked just the second time the Eagles didn't get two points from a game when leading it after two periods in 22 chances this season (now 20-1-1). It was also one of the few times this year that Colorado failed to get a win when out-shooting their opponent (now 18-5-4).

POINT PRODUCER - Kevin Ulanski's overall numbers are impressive this season -- he leads the league with 67 points (nearly a 10-point margin), but a closer look makes his consistency even more amazing. He has failed to register a point in just seven of his 40 games, and has registered multiple points in 22 of them (a team high). He has yet to go back-to-back games without a point.

TOP 10 - Steve Haddon's goal against the Mudbugs on Saturday night was more than just his first career point against them in 13 overall meetings (including playoffs), it also moved him into a tie for 10th place on the Eagles' all-time points list with 120. His next point will drop both Chris Hartsburg and Seth Leonard from that list. Fraser Filipic is just behind all three at 117.

FEBRUARY FALLS - The Eagles will be looking to buck a longstanding trend this month as February has historically been the toughest on their record. Last season Colorado was just 4-6-2 in February, registering more losses in the year's second month than in any other. The Eagles did better in the February's of 2007 (7-6-0) and 2008 (8-6-0), but those too bore more losses than any other month in their respective seasons. Last February was the Eagles' first losing month since October of '03 -- their first month of existence -- when they went 2-4-0.

MAVERICK TAMERS - Eagles forward Ryan McLeod has scored more points-per-game against the Missouri Mavericks than any other team this season. In just four meetings, the first-year Eagle has eight points (2-6-8), to tie Kevin Ulanski and Ed McGrane for the team lead. McLeod also has eight points against the Gorillas, but those have come in a total of seven games. Goalie Mike Mole has also had great success against the Mavs, posting a record of 3-0-0 with a GAA of 1.67 and a SV% of.951.

Check out the Colorado Eagles Statistics

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Central Hockey League Stories from February 1, 2010


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