LOVELAND, Colo.—The Colorado Eagles were back in the Loud House tonight to attempt to take a series lead over the Abbotsford Canucks.

Coming in hot off of a 5–3 victory on the road, the momentum was in Colorado’s favor. Coupled with the advantage of playing at home, the game was set up to be successful.

Even with an early power play to help things move along, Colorado would come up empty-handed on the first man-advantage. At the four minute mark, John Ludvig promptly put the Eagles on the board without the advantage.

Colorado spent some time fighting against themselves and the officials on the ice. The negative momentum shifter came with the Canucks goal at the 10:27 mark. Abbotsford had one of their players laying in the crease under goaltender Trent Miner to allow the tying goal.

A dominant first period quickly devolved into the Canucks taking control on the ice. Abbotsford ended the period ahead in shots on goal and a demoralized Colorado team.

With a little more pep in their step coming out of the tunnel to start the second period, the teams would engage in a hard-fought shot-for-shot battle. Until the last minute of the second frame, it seemed that the period would end in a gridlock. But, Jake Wise had something to say about that and buried a goal with the help of Matthew Phillips.

Wise joined the team on a PTO, and is now marking his first appearance in playoffs with a chance at a deep run.

“I mean, it’s been awesome,” he said. “It’s so tight out there. Every game is hard fought. I think every, every game in this series is a one goal game, pretty much, so it’s intense. It’s hard hockey out there, but it’s been a blast. And I really like where our group’s at. Since joining the team on a PTO, I’m obviously here making a deep run.”

His goal would be the last time the Eagles held onto the lead. Abbotsford’s Mark Sasson drove a goal into the net just over halfway through the third period, and it was all but the final nail in the coffin.

After a hard fought overtime period with lots of good looks from both teams, Abbotsford capitalized on a bouncing puck and lost 3–2, putting them down in the series 2–1.

“It’s just been going back and forth all series,” head coach Aaron Schneekloth said. “All three games [Trent] Miner’s been outstanding in the net. He’s given us a chance to win. It’s the smallest margins allowing a team to come up with a victory. And you know, tonight, there’s a scramble at their net, and they find the puck in a hole and game over. It wasn’t from lack of effort, lack of compete, lack of chance on our end. It’s got to come out with the same effort and capitalize on some chances.”

Takeaways

While not an excuse for the game, the officials missed several calls that could have turned the tide of the game. Abbotsford tripped Mark Senden up and he accidentally brought one of their players to the ground in overtime. The call went to the Canucks and gave them a scary power play opportunity early into the overtime period.

Colorado has always struggled against the Canucks, and this game was as tough as they come. There weren’t any unforgivable mistakes on the ice, but it was the slight mistakes that were costly. The tying goal resulted from Wise being out of position, and the overtime goal was largely because of budding extracurriculars from Jacob MacDonald and Abbotsford.

Upcoming

The Eagles will return to Blue Arena on Friday, May 23 at 7:05 p.m. FloHockey will broadcast the game.

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