Eagles roar back with 8-1 shellacking of the Mudbugs

LOVELAND, Colo. – An 8-1 Game 6 win was the Colorado Eagles’ answer to an ugly 7-2 loss in Bossier-Shreveport last weekend in Game 5 of the Ray Miron President’s Cup finals.
To be successful in any sport means not getting too high when you win or too low when you lose. The turn around from Game 5 to Game 6 exemplified this theory.
“It took us maybe a day to get over that last game – we didn’t have the greatest game and we knew we had to get over it quickly because we knew we had a game tonight,” Eagles goalie Kyle Jones said. “Coach had a good talk with us before the game and guys came out like gang busters scoring.”
Colorado scored three goals on eight shots in the first period with Scott May getting his first of two on the night, scoring a power play goal at 2:41 with assists from Kyle Peto and Kevin Ulanski.
At 14:40 Aaron Schneekloth made it 2-0 after taking a pass from Riley Nelson and finding his way to the front of the net to put the puck past Mudbugs goalie Ryan Munce.

Kevin Ulanski’s short-handed tally at 16:53 was the Eagles’ fifth shorty of the playoffs assisted by Riley Nelson and Steve Haddon. It proved to be the undoing of Ryan Munce and John DeCaro replaced him in net after allowing three goals on the first seven shots faced.
“I felt that our downfall throughout this series had been a weak first period and we addressed that; we talked about it,” Coach Chris Stewart said. “And they responded very well – that was to come out and play a strong first period and play it with as much heart and as much desire as if they were up 2-1 with a minute left in the third period.”
Another special teams goal, this time on the power play, off the stick of Adam Chorneyko put the home team up 4-0 early in the second period. Less than two minutes later at 4:18, Daymen Rycroft tipped a blast from the point by Jason Beatty down past DeCaro for a 5-0 Eagles lead.
Bossier-Shreveport finally got on the scoreboard at 12:32 when Steven Crampton took advantage of a rebound to score the ‘Bugs lone goal of the contest.
Period three continued the three goals per period format, but like the first period, all three goals were scored by the Eagles.
Cherneyko slapped Nelson’s pass into the high slot area past DeCaro at 9:54 to make it 6-1 and May backhanded the puck into the Mudbugs’ net for a 7-1 score at 17:44.
The last goal of the night was an unassisted marker for Chorneyko to give him the first hat trick of his professional career at 18:30, resulting in a final score of  8-1.
Jones stopped 24 of 25 shots in the game while his counterparts at the other end of the ice, Munce and DeCaro, stopped a combined 15 of 23 shots. 
Colorado’s special teams scored on two of its four power plays as well as on one of the Mudbugs’ power plays. While Bossier-Shreveport went 0 for 5 on the man-advantage.
The deciding Game 7 for the Ray Miron President’s cup will be played Friday, May 27th with the opening puck drop is 7:05 MDT at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colo.
Contact the writer/photographer at terry.sanford@prohockeynews.com