LOVELAND, Colo. — The Colorado Eagles had “the Battle of the Birds” over the last two days with the San Diego Gulls (ANA). Normally, the Gulls present little of a challenge for the Eagles, having lost their last eight games at Blue Arena. On Friday night, two teams that appeared evenly matched proved otherwise. But on Saturday, the Eagles looked more like the Colorado Avalanche with a blowout win to leapfrog the Ontario Reign (LAK) to first in the Pacific Division standings.

Friday Night: 5–4 shootout loss

Colorado did not start out the game in the best way at all. As the Eagles were on the power play just a couple of minutes into the game, they gave up a shorthanded goal. That would not be the worst of it, though. As Colorado was trying to kill off its second penalty of the period, San Diego converted with 10 seconds left in the power play.

The second period is where the Eagles came together. For the first two minutes, the Gulls dominated puck possession. Colorado gained the puck and did not look back from there. Just 4:25 into the period, the Eagles came into the zone on an odd-man rush. It allowed them to set up and pass the puck around the zone while setting the screen on goaltender Calle Clang. Wyatt Aamodt received the pass and, with no hesitation, flung the puck towards the net for his second of the year.

Three minutes later, Alex Barre-Boulet stole the puck and fought one on one to work into the Gulls’ zone. Tye Felhaber was following the play and waiting for a pass. Barre-Boulet spun and passed to Felhaber, who shoved the puck past Clang on the post to tie the game at two.

The third period would see a four total of four goals, two from each side. Both Jack Ahcan and Chase Bradley got the goals by working hard and crashing the net. Overtime would bring no result, and the Gulls were the only ones to convert in the shootout. A narrow miss by Barré-Boulet cost the Eagles in the shootout.

Takeaways

The power play in this game really cost the Eagles. They had three opportunities to convert on the man advantage and failed to get a goal even though the Eagles have a 30.8 percent success rate at home.

“Yeah, I thought early there were plays that could have been made that we didn’t,” said head coach Mark Letestu. “Maybe we didn’t see them in the first two power plays, I didn’t mind where I thought we were dangerous. We executed at a pretty high level. The third one, you know, wasn’t, wasn’t good for anything. That was just kind of a low execution, low pace, whether they turned it up or not. We just, we weren’t just making the plays and being crisp and where I thought in the first period, even our power play didn’t get a goal. The shorthanded goal hurts us early, but we come back and kind of bury that. But just the execution, a little bit of pace was lacking on the last one.”

Mark Letestu interview January 9, 2025

Saturday Night: 6–0 victory

“They didn’t get rewarded for a good effort yesterday,” said Letestu. “And didn’t get some of the breaks and today, the first period wasn’t easy on us. It was kind of a lot of ping pong, and then once we found our legs, the dam kind of broke, and things got going. And credit to them for rolling with it and putting the team away today.”

The Eagles started slow, so defenseman Keaton Middleton spiced it up a bit. Two and a half minutes into the game, he and Travis Howe dropped gloves. It set the tone for the rest of the game, and even though the Eagles did not score in the first period. It let the Gulls know that if they wanted to mess with anyone on the ice, they would have to go through Middleton first.

In the second period, the Eagles opened the floodgates as they scored five unanswered goals. Danil Gushchin opened it up with his 11th of the season. He had a ton of chances on Friday but couldn’t find the back of the net. Barre-Boulet helped finish three minutes later on the power play, where the Eagles failed to connect on Friday as well. Then bad just went from bad to worse for the Gulls with the Eagles scoring three times in three minutes. Goals from Jayson Megna, Bradley and Tristen Nielsen would top off the period for the 5–0 lead.

The final period was the toughest of all of them. Colorado had to kill off three straight penalties. All three penalties put their best killers in the box with Middleton, Megna, and Ahcan. Goaltender Kyle Keyser stood on his head, stopping every shot coming his way and looked like he was playing for something to prove. The second penalty got fans out of their seats. As Megna broke free from the box, he took off for center ice. Alex Gagne saw the chance and threw a stretch pass right on his tape for the jailbreak goal.

“Yeah, he’s [Gagne] got vision,” said Letestu. “He’s been sneaky about it. It’s just one of those things where the perception is that he’s this big, clunking defensive defenseman that’s heavy and hard, but he’s got some sneaky vision and some really good execution, to the point where I’ve had to try and keep up the power play from [Tim] Army.”

Takeaways

Colorado learned from its mistakes in the first game on Friday. They converted on the power play and were heavy on the forecheck to keep the strong throughout the game. Doing this allowed them to have a goal in multiple situations and keep the lead.

Mark Letestu interview January 10, 2025

Nikita Prishchepov interview January 10, 2025

Up Next

The Eagles continue their home stand on Tuesday against the Ontario Reign at 7 p.m. MT. AHLTV on FloHockey.com will stream the game.