Brahmas grab home ice from Eagles

LOVELAND, Colo. – As advertised the CHL Presidents Cup Finals match-up between the Colorado Eagles and the Texas Brahmas looks to be an exciting series. Both teams play a fast skilled game that relies on stellar goaltending and taking advantage of the opponents mistakes.

For the Eagles the penalty plague has become one of the biggest hurdles in their pursuit of the Ray Miron Presidents Cup. In Game 1 of the finals against the Texas Brahmas the penalty deficit was seven to four with the Brahmas scoring on three of of those opportunities with the  man advantage while  Colorado capitalized on only one.
 
“We gotta work hard and hopefully the referee will give us a few more opportunities in the game,” said Colorado coach Kevin McClelland. “But we gotta work for those opportunities.”
 
In the first period the Brahmas Tyler Skworchinski continued his torrid scoring pace with a power play goal at 11:09. THe goal was scored on Colorado’s Jason Beatty’s second trip to the penalty box. Kevin Ulanski  answered back with a power play goal for the Eagles at 15:10 with Scott Shepard sitting in the Brahmas penalty box for a two minute penalty. Steve Haddon was the recipient of the home team’s third penalty of the first period and Matt Quinn of the Brahmas made good with a goal at the 19:01 mark.
 
Leading by a goal the team from Texas continued to outwork the Eagles for the first part of the middle frame but Haddon managed to get two swipes at pinballing puck on a short handed opportunity and knocked it past Brett Jaeger to tie the game at 12:52. After the goal was scored the Eagles seem to gain momentum and controlled the remainder of the period but would not score again until after the second intermission was over.
 
Colorado moved into the front when Ulanski recorded his second goal just over two minutes into the third stanza aided by a nice feed from Eagles defenseman Scott Polaski. Leading 3 to 2 early in the third period, Brett Hammond of the Eagles was called for a high sticking penalty at 5:29. Within 24 seconds the Brahmas had tied the game and scored the go-ahead goal. Skworchinski picked up his second power play goal of the night with assists from Kevin Mcleod and Jordan Cameron at 5:44. Just 12 seconds later Shepard took the puck on the ensuing faceoff and skated into the offensive zone before blasting a laser past Andrew Penner that caught a bit of the crossbar before burying itself in the netting.
 
Even though the Brahmas stole home ice with the win players and coaches from both teams expect the finals series to be a long hard fought series.
“It’s going to be a long series,” said McClelland. “Obviously we just lost home ice advantage but we can’t worry about that we just have to look at Friday night and then it’s on to Texas.”
To a man the Eagles know they hurt their chances by taking too many penalties. If they are going to win the championship they will have to stay out of the penalty box.   
“Five on five they are a good hockey team”, said Colorado’s Aaron Grosul. “With the extra man they are an exceptional hockey team.”
 
The next game of this series will be Friday night, May 1st at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colorado. Puck drop is at 7:05 P.M.
 
Contact the author and photographer at terry.sanford@prohockeynews.com
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