Eagles Fans Celebrate History, Critical Win Against Rage
January 12, 2008 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Colorado Eagles News Release
LOVELAND, Colo. - The Colorado Eagles set a new record for consecutive regular season sellouts in minor pro hockey and picked up a key win in the meantime, overcoming the Rocky Mountain Rage, 6-5, in a marquee CHL match-up. The Eagles packed the Budweiser Events Center for the 145th consecutive time in the regular season and treated their fans to an incredible game in which they fell behind early to their division-leading, in-state rival before storming back in the second period to earn the win.
Rocky Mountain was all over Colorado in the first 10 minutes of play, using a dangerous transition game to capitalize on numerous odd-man rushes. The first such instance came at 2:28 when the puck skipped over Greg Pankewicz's stick entering the offensive zone and the Rage took it back the other way before Nathan Rosychuk broke free behind the defense and his shot slipped under Marco Emond's arm for an early 1-0 lead. Rosychuk helped create another odd-man-goal at 4:11 when he passed from the left of the crease, against the grain, to Daymen Rycroft on the other side of the Eagles' goaltender. Erik Adams helped energize the crowd with a great individual effort halfway through the period. After breaking up another potential Rocky Mountain rush, Adams skated the puck into the offensive zone and coasted into the left-wing circle. He turned toward Reid to draw the goaltender toward him and then snapped a pass to Riley Nelson who beat Reid from the hashes.
The Rage quickly countered, however, catching the Eagles pressing with four players below the hash marks in the offensive zone. The puck squirted into the high slot and Brent Cullaton and Rycroft converted a 2-on-1chance to end any momentum switch. It was Reid, however, that would take over the second half of the period, making two key saves to keep the Eagles from tying the game. The first great save came when the Eagles had a mini 3-on-2 breakaway on the power play. Scott Polaski used his speed to get behind the defense and made a great back-hand move to get Reid to the ice, but the Rage goaltender threw out his leg and stopped the shot with his right toe. Reid stood on his head again a few minutes later when he stopped a give-and-go between Riley Nelson and Seth Leonard; Reid was essentially beaten, but made a last-ditch-effort-dive to his right and Nelson's shot from the low slot hit his arm.
The Eagles would battle back to take the lead in the second, out-shooting the Rage 24-5; the 24 shots in a period tied the second-most in a period in franchise history. Reid, however, carried his outstanding play into the second, stopping an Eagles' short-handed chance just minutes into the second period, but Colorado kept pressuring and before the puck made it out of the zone, the Eagles scored. Pankewicz got off a shot from between the circles and Nelson picked up the rebound in front before flipping a back-hander behind Reid at 3:39. The Eagles twosome would hook up again to tie it at 10:36. Pankewicz sent a pass from the top of the left circle to Nelson at the top of the right circle and hats began to rain over the glass at the Budweiser Events Center as Nelson recorded his third hat trick as an Eagle. Colorado would take the lead at 16:45 after Dave Iannazzo picked up the puck out of a scrum in front of the net and stuffed it home on a wrap-around goal. The Eagles kept coming - even when down a man - but Reid stopped two odd-man rushes as the period was winding down. But on the same Rage power play, Rycroft threw the puck into the slot from below the goal line and it deflected of Erik Adams' skate and in, giving Rycroft his own hat trick. Colorado took the hard-fought lead right back though, scoring with just 20 seconds left in the period when Pankewicz took a Seth Leonard pass at the bottom of the left-wing circle and snapped the puck over Reid's right shoulder. The Eagles out-shot the Rage 24-5 in the second.
The Rage came back in the third with a solid effort and tied the game on the power play at 7:16. Scott Wray collected the puck in his own zone and passed it to Simon Watson to start a rush the other way. Watson skated the puck down the slot and Wray came flying down the left-wing boards. Watson fanned on his pass to Wray, but got just enough of it for Wray to gather it and flicked it low past Emond in one fluid motion. The Eagles countered at 9:51 to take the lead one final time. Ed McGrane skated the puck into the offensive zone - almost drawing his teammates offsides by puling up - and back-handed a saucer pass to Seth Leonard in the high slot. Leonard threw the puck on net and it beat Reid up high; Aaron Schneekloth provided a screen on the play. The Rage kept coming, eventually out-shooting Colorado 10-5 in the period, but couldn't get another puck past Emond as the Eagles and their fans celebrated a dramatic win and a historic accomplishment.
Central Hockey League Stories from January 12, 2008
- Eagles Fans Celebrate History, Critical Win Against Rage - Colorado Eagles
- 'Bugs Crush Bucks, Set New Franchise Win Streak - Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs
- Second Period Too Much for the Rage - Rocky Mountain Rage
- Brahmas head into all-star break with 'W' - Fort Worth Brahmas
- Bucks Lose Power, Game To Mudbugs 6-2 - Laredo Bucks
- Sundogs Drop Final Game Before CHL All-Star Break - Arizona Sundogs
- Minard Leads Scorpions To Victory - New Mexico Scorpions
- Ice Bats Unload on the Sundogs, 6-2 - Austin Ice Bats
- Wolfe, Blazers Shutout Rayz 3-0 - Corpus Christi IceRays
- RiverKings sweep SteelHounds, 6-4 - Mississippi RiverKings
- Amarillo Drops Third in a Row - Amarillo Gorillas
- Hounds Lose Sixth Straight On The Road - Youngstown SteelHounds
- Ruskowski Goes For 450th Career Win As Bucks Host Mudbugs - Laredo Bucks
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
