ONTARIO, Calif. — On Saturday night, the Colorado Eagles had a brief reality check with a loss against the Ontario Reign (LAK). A lack of shooting and pushing the play led to lose. On Sunday afternoon, the Eagles battled the Reign once again. Colorado has already punched their ticket to the playoffs, so now they have their eyes set on a division title. Unfortunately, the Reign has other plans in mind. They swept the weekend series and pulled within four points behind the Eagles and eight games remaining in the season. Colorado may have played one of their worst games all season to maintain any lead against the Reign and lose 5–4 in the waning seconds of the game.

Takeaways

The Eagles have been one of the hardest teams to play against while on the power play. Mark Senden converted with his seventh goal of the season for the shorthanded goal for the Eagles. Their 84.9 percent ranks them fifth overall in the league for top penalty kill and now they have 15 shorthanded goals. This was enough to put them on top of the league ahead of the Charlotte Checkers (FLA) and with Tye Felhaber leading the team in shorthanded goals (3).

Giveaways killed the Eagles on Sunday. Untimely turnovers caused the first three goals by the Reign in the neutral zone. The turnovers led to panic by both the defense and goaltender Adam Scheel and it opened the net. Scheel also had trouble seeing the puck to start the game, allowing two goals in the first two shots of the game by Ontario.

A bright side of the game was that Jacob MacDonald scored his 29th goal of the season. He now sits one goal behind the record for most goals by a defenseman in the regular season. John Slaney initially set the record in 1999–2000 for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Colorado allowed two more goals in the final 34 seconds of the game after clawing back to gain a lead. Ontario pulled their goaltender for the extra attacker and laid the pressure on thick in the Eagles’ zone. With just 34 seconds left, Ontario tied the game at four. Twenty-three seconds later, a turnover at their own blue line by John Ludvig allowed for Ontario to take the lead. Turnovers became too much of an issue for the Eagles and it is something that they will have to correct fast.

Upcoming

The Eagles will wrap up the road trip with one game against the Coachella Valley Firebirds (SEA) on Wednesday at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California at 8 p.m. MT. AHLTV on FloHockey.com will stream the game.