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CHL Colorado Eagles

Eagles Celebrate First Win, Backstrom's Career

October 24, 2007 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Colorado Eagles News Release


LOVELAND, Colo. - The CHL champion Eagles celebrated their home opener, Ralph Backstrom's career and their first win of the season with a 6-2 victory over the Tulsa Oilers.

Colorado took advantage of opening night to celebrate numerous events: Ralph Backstrom's career, the franchise's fifth anniversary and Ryan Tobler's 500th professional point and 200th pro goal. The festivities pushed the time of puck-drop back nearly a half-hour, starting with a laser show on the ice and 40-foot synchronized flames during player introductions. President, General Manager and Head Coach Chris Stewart, away from the team while he recovers from back surgery, even made a cameo appearance -- cane and all (waving it to the fans) -- during intros. There was then a major ceremony in honor of the organization's founder, Ralph Backstrom, who retired over the summer after 53 incredibly successful years in hockey. Backstrom was honored with a portrait, a video montage from his career and an eagle statue from CEO Martin Lind; to top it all off, Backstrom's jersey was lifted to the rafters. He fought back tears throughout the dedications, which were all kept a surprise.

The other honoree of the night, Ryan Tobler, helped get the scoring started when he backhanded a pass from behind the goal to Chris Hartsburg who had an easy tap-in from in front of the crease on the power play at 16:19 of the first. That would be the only goal in the opening period, as Clayton Pool made several strong saves.

Coming back from the first intermission, Tobler was honored with a plaque for his 500th professional point. He scored the point in the season opener against Arizona, and notched his 200th professional goal the next night.

The game opened up in the second period when Ed McGrane scored from Greg Pankewicz and Aaron Schneekloth 1:05 in. Just 28 seconds later, Hartsburg scored his second of the night (from Tobler and McGrane). And just 37 seconds after that, Steve Haddon made it 4-0. Tulsa then called a timeout. At 6:33 in, Tulsa scored (they were held without a second period goal here all last year) when Paul Kelly tallied a power play goal from Matt Goody and Josh Garbutt. David Beauregard then cut the Eagle's lead in half with a shot from the middle of the slot at 16:35.

In the final period, Scott Polaski made it 5-2, 4:05 in when he followed his own rebound hard to the net. Fraser Filipic then put the game away at 17:22 (Polaski, Brad Williamson), and the Eagles and their fans ended the celebratory night in proper fashion. For the Eagles, Pool finished the night stopping 35 of 37 shots, and his Tulsa counterpart, Kevin St. Pierre, stopped 45 of 51.

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