Colorado dominates in 5-1 win over Missouri

LOVELAND, Colo – Three Colorado Eagles forwards scored to record a dominating 5-1 win in Game two of the Turner Conference Semifinals Saturday night.
Riley Nelson, league MVP and Eagles’ team captain, tallied a goal as did Kevin Ulanski, but the humble and hard working blue collar third-liner Steve Haddon recorded the first three goals of the contest, his first ever hat trick, to cement the win over the visiting Missouri Mavericks.
A late first period power play goal assisted by Aaron Schneekloth and Daymen Rycroft started off Haddon’s juggernaut. At 11:36 of the second period, at even strength, Adam Hogg’s intercepted pass was sent in to Haddon who chipped it past Robby Nolan for his second score.
On the power play, again at 13:55 of the middle frame, Andrew Penner made the decision to hit Daymen Rycroft with a headman pass up the boards that Rycroft slid across to a sprinting Haddon, who scored to complete the natural hat trick.

“I was in the right spot at the right time tonight and they went in for me.” Haddon said. “My linemates played unbelievable and got me the puck. It was a whole team effort from top to bottom.”
Shortly after that power play goal, Riley Nelson scored his league-leading 6th goal of the playoffs to make the score 4-0 heading into the third period.
Mavericks coach, Scott Hillman, opted to replace Nolan with Gerry Festa at that point.
Early in the third, Ulanski notched the fifth Eagles goal, on another power play, beating Festa with assistance from Dan Sullivan and Nelson.
As the final period wore on things got a bit chippy. After enduring some rough treatment at the hands of the Mavericks on the previous shift, rookie Adam Chorneyko was called for a five-minute Boarding Major and a game misconduct for taking out Mavericks defenseman, Cole Ruwe.
Colorado worked diligently to kill off the penalty and preserve the 5-0 shut out for Penner.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, their shutout bid came to an end with less than two minutes left in the game when Ryan Jardine finally got a puck past Penner.
“I’m a little bit disappointed on a personal level, but I mean we won 5-1 and that’s the big thing.” Penner said. “Whether we win 7-6 or 5-1, winning is the big thing. It’s a nice feather in your cap when you get a shut out but it doesn’t bother me. As long as we win, nothing else matters.
Game three in this best-of-five Turner Conference Semifinal series will be played on Tuesday, April 19th in Independence, Missouri. Contact the writer/photographer at terry.sanford@prohockeynews.com