Mudbugs put squeeze on Eagles to take Game 2

LOVELAND, Colo. – After suffering a 5-3 loss in Game two, the Colorado Eagles now face essentially a best of five series in which the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs have home ice.
Oh, yeah, and the first three games of this new series will be played in Bossier-Shreveport.
“We’ve done some real damage on the road this year and as much as I detest the 2-3-2 setup, that’s just how it is,” Eagles head coach Chris Stewart said. “We lost this game tonight – that means we have to win one game there but we certainly are not going to be satisfied with the idea that we are just going to win one game.”
Game 2 started out badly for the Eagles when the Mudbugs’ Brett Smith threw a shot at Kyle Jones that slipped past the Eagles goalie just 30 seconds into the game. However Colorado responded quickly with  Adam Cherneyko scoring on a beautiful set up courtesy of Riley Nelson and Kevin Ulanski three minutes later to even up the score.

“Nelson did a great job going on the forecheck,” Cherneyko said. “Nelly set me up along with Ulanski…I just know the guys that I play with are two of the league’s best and it’s an honor to play with those guys.”
First period shots on goal were 14-6 in favor of the Eagles despite having to kill two penalties while drawing none.
Period two saw the Mudbugs score bookend goals around a single Eagle goal. Simon Mangos scored with assists by Steven Crampton and Andy Contois at 10:38, answered by Nelson’s backhander past John DeCaro slightly more than three minutes later.
The third tally went to the Mudbugs’ Justin Aikins at 16:37 to close out the second period scoring with shots on goal 9-6 for Colorado and power play chances 2-1 in favor of Bossier-Shreveport.
The final frame saw the Mudbugs take a 5-2 lead with a Jeff Kyrzakos goal at 6:09 and some nice passing by Contois and Smith to set up Steven Crampton for the final Bossier-Shreveport marker at 12:30.
Down by three goals, the Eagles got a bit of life as Cherneyko scored again off another great pass from Nelson at 14:05 to account for the eventual 5-3 final score.
Colorado was called for one minor penalty in the third period and the Mudbugs were whistled for two. Shots on goal were 13-7 in favor of Colorado.
Despite the loss, Eagles players and coaches alike were able to put a positive spin on the experience;
“Obviously now it’s the best of five so we just have to start with the first one and go on from there,” Jones said.
“Losing is not fun, but we had our chances and we have to build off of the positives, Cherneyko said. “I thought that we worked hard as a team and we have to go into Shreveport and take it game by game and shift by shift.”
“I thought we had some good chances tonight and we’re going to look to capitalize on those when we head out on the road,” Ulanski said.
“It’s playoff hockey and it’s one game at a time,” Stewart said. “This could have been triple overtime and then we lost. The results are no different. The idea is we got to go in and find a way to win Tuesday night and hopefully get back on the winning track.
Game 3 will be played at the CenturyTel Center in Bossier City, La. on Tuesday May 17th with the opening puck drop is 6:05 MST.
Contact the weiter/photographer at terry.sanford@prohockeynews.com