Eagles have high post-season expectations

LOVELAND, Colo. – With a successful 2010-11 regular season in the books, the Colorado Eagles are looking forward to the post-season run for their third Ray Miron President’s Cup.
This season’s success includes achieving a 300th straight sell out at the Budweiser Event Center as well as numerous weekly, monthly and season ending awards for various Eagles players.
Forwards Scott May, Kevin Ulanski and Riley Nelson each received Oakley/CHL Player of the Week awards, with Ulanski winning the award twice during the season.
Goaltender Kyle Jones received the Oakley/CHL Goaltender of the Week award twice with the latest for his outstanding work between the pipes during the final week of the regular season. Jones was also a finalist for the Most Outstanding Goaltender honor, losing out to Robby Nolan of the Missouri Mavericks.
Rookie Adam Chorneyko was named to the CHL All-Rookie Team for his excellent play. Although he was a late addition, having signed with the Eagles in early December, he tallied 32 points (14 G, 18 A, +8) and 58 penalty minutes in 40 appearances and played a strong two-way game to solidify his place on the playoff roster.

Finally, after eight years in the league, Eagles Captain Riley Nelson was named the Central Hockey League’s Most Valuable Player, following in the footsteps of linemate Kevin Ulanski last season and the previous Eagles captain turned assistant coach Greg Pankewicz, who earned the honor during the 2004-05 season.
With a league-leading +/- of 40 and 93 points (34 G, 59 A) on the season, Nelson, a quiet and soft spoken man, leads this team through his own fine example.
“It’s a great honor,” Nelson said. “Every year there’s great players that are nominated. I’ve been nominated a few times now and they probably got sick and tired of seeing my name on there and finally said, ‘give it to the poor guy’.” 
A record of 40 wins, 22 losses and 4 overtime losses for the Eagles, although exactly the same record as the Rapid City Rush, was not enough to earn the Eagles the top seed in the Turner conference. Despite having beaten the Rush nine out of the twelve games played between the two close rivals, an odd inclusion in the tie-breaking mechanism denied Colorado the conference title.“The idea is shootout wins basically don’t count…we had three shootout wins and they had one shootout win, so they had the lesser amount of shootout wins and that is how they ruled them to be the better team,” Eagles Head Coach Chris Stewart said. “Rather than go with the way the rest of the world goes in any sport with head-to-head matchups, we won nine games and they won three, and we end up the second seed. The formula and thought behind this is nothing less than ridiculous. I have never heard of anything like this before – to lessen the fact that you win in a shootout, especially from the goalie’s perspective, to find a way to win and then these wins are not counted.”
In the opening round of the 2011 CHL Playoffs, the Eagles will face the Quad City Mallards in a best of five format. Games one and two will be contested at the Budweiser Events Center on Friday,  April 1st and Saturday April 2nd. Games three and four (if necessary) will be played at the I-Wireless Arena in Moline, Illinois on Tuesday, April 5th and Wednesday April 6th. A fifth game, if needed, will be back at the BEC on Saturday April 9th.
Goaltender Kyle Jones, in a bit of irony, will defend the Eagles’ net against his former team, the same Quad City Mallards. “I am going to try my best not to think about it as much as possible – playing against Quad City,” Jones said. “I am just going to try to treat it like any other game.” 
The season series between the Eagles and Mallards, with all games having been played in the I-Wireless Center, yielded one win and two losses for Colorado. Quad City plays a tight-checking defensive style that presents a unique challenge to the fast skating and high scoring Eagles team. The clash of styles will likely make for an entertaining and hard fought battle for the two avian-named teams.
Heading into the “second season”, the Eagles have won six of their last seven contests and appear to be poised for a deep playoff run.
Let the games begin…
Contact the writer/photographer at terry.sanford@prohockeynews.com