On Wednesday, the Colorado Eagles took a 1–0 series lead against Coachella Valley (SEA) in the best-of-five series for the Pacific Division title. The Firebirds spent the first ten minutes of the game trying to goad the Eagles into taking unnecessary penalties, but the Eagles refused to take the bait. Colorado’s defense limited the Firebirds to six shots on goal in the first period and allowed only four in the second. Trent Miner was outstanding in net, recording his fourth shutout of the playoffs.
After Friday, the series moves to Colorado, so the Firebirds will undoubtedly come out of the gate hot. The Eagles will once again be without their Captain, Jayson Megna, who took a puck to the face in the final game against Henderson. Jack Ahcan is also still out, having played with the Avalanche on Wednesday. Miner, who has four shutouts so far in the playoffs, started in net. His backup was Ilya Nabokov, who recently arrived from Russia. This was his first game on the active roster.
Recap
The Eagles outshot the Firebirds 7–2 through the first 11 minutes of the period, continuing the stout defense that’s served them so well through the playoffs so far. Coachella Valley turned up the heat in the last half of the period, shooting at the net every chance they had. At first intermission, Eagles had 13 shots on goal. The Firebirds registered ten. But neither netminder gave up a goal.
The second period was basically a series of power plays as the teams took turns in the box.
2nd period penalties
The Eagles’ penalty kill was exceptional and even produced multiple short-handed chances, including this one.
But in the end, neither team could score.
Unfortunately, Coachella Valley broke the stalemate just 1:20 into the third period when J.R. Avon scored his sixth goal of the postseason. Less than a minute later, Eduard Šalé made it 2–0. After playing such a strong, disciplined game for more than forty minutes, the Eagles looked stunned to suddenly be down by two.
They didn’t give up, though. They had a whole period to work with. The Eagles began throwing everything at the net, but just couldn’t get past Nikke Kokko. Late in the period, Colorado’s desperation made them sloppy, and they ceded another goal to Avon at 16:05 of the third. The Firebirds tacked on an empty net goal in the final minutes of the frame to take win the game 4–0.
Takeaways
The Eagles played well Friday night for most of the game, outshooting the Firebirds 33–25, but they just could not beat Kokko. Things of course fell apart in the final minutes of the game. As time winds down, players have to take bigger and bigger risks to try to even the score. It’s frustrating but understandable. But despite the score, the Eagles played a good game. Also, they were missing two very important players in Megna and Ahcan. It would be hard to overemphasize how much those two matter to this team. Hopefully they’ll both be back for game three on Sunday.
Ivan Ivan, Chase Bradley, and Jason Polin have been fantastic together. Their chemistry as a line (or together on the penalty kill) is easy to see. They have goals in three of the last four games. Even when they aren’t scoring, they’re a whirlwind of chaos in the best possible way. Teams struggle to contain them. They excel at winning board battles and playing keepaway with the puck. They’ve arguably been the Eagles’ best line over the last two series.
This game was painful, but the loss isn’t as demoralizing as the score makes it look. The series will now return to Colorado. Through the regular season, the Eagles are 2–10–3–3 at home. In the postseason, they’re undefeated on home ice. This game was disappointing, but if they stick to their game plan — a strong defense and disciplined play — the Eagles are still more than capable of winning this series.
Up Next
Both teams head to Colorado to finish off this best-of-five series. Game three will be Sunday, May 17, at 6:05pm Mountain Time. AHLTV on FloHockey.com will stream the game.
