Feathers fly as Mallards defeat Eagles in overtime

LOVELAND, Colo. – Game one of the opening round of the Turner Conference playoff series saw an opportunistic Quad City Mallards team snatch a victory away from the Colorado Eagles.
A hard fought, yet scoreless first period saw the Eagles out shoot the Mallards 18 to 7. Colorado was unable to capitalize on their five power play chances.
Matt Glasser, assisted by Steve Haddon, put the Eagles on the board 14:05 into the second period. With less than a minute on the clock, Kevin Ulanski set up Riley Nelson for Colorado’s second goal of the night late in that same period.
The prettiest goal of the night was goal number three for the Eagles, scored by rookie Adam Chorneyko at 8:13 of the third period. Chorneyko turned a pass

up ice from Dan Sullivan into a skillfully executed top shelf goal that put the Eagles up 3-0.
A controversial goal for the Mallards by Obi Aduba, was originally waived off by referee Travis Smith was allowed after consult with the linesmen and goal judge got the Quad Cities on the board.
Another quick score from Zac Pearson brought the Mallards within one goal and as time wound down in the third period the tying goal was scored by Eric Giosa with only 7.8 seconds remaining.
Although the Mallards were penalized twice, including over a minute of 5 on 3 power play time for the Eagles, it was Brandon Marino from Quad City who scored the game winner on a breakaway at 4:50 into the overtime period.
It was a shocking loss for the second seeded Colorado Eagles, who worked extremely hard to build a 3 to 0 lead only to see it slip away in a matter of minutes late in the third period.
Eagles Coach Chris Stewart was asked what can be done to get a better result tomorrow night.
“There is not a whole lot you are going to change from tonight until tomorrow,” Stewart said, “We want our guys to step out on to the ice with the same idea in mind and that is to play as hard as we can. Whatever it takes to win in a five game series we have to win three games that’s the bottom line, it doesn’t matter which three games you win the last three or the first three.”
Colorado Eagles goalie Kyle Jones, who was a former Mallards goaltender, was asked how he intends to turn it around for the next game.
“That’s what playoffs are all about – you have to forget what happened the night before and move forward,” Jones said. “You come in and have a good practice in the morning and go from there, and you play twice as hard as you did tonight.”
The Colorado Eagles can only hope that playing twice as hard Saturday night results in a win in game two. contact the writer/photographer at terry.sanford@prohockeynews.com