BOISE, Idaho, – Former Idaho Steelhead Alex Belzile’s two goals and three assists, as well as the same scoring totals for Matt Register, helped propel the Colorado Eagles to an exciting comeback win in overtime Friday night to take a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven Kelly Cup playoff series with the Idaho Steelheads.
Idaho came out shooting and dominated play in the first period, amassing 15 shots on goal while holding Colorado to only five shots.
Anthony Luciani made good on one of those 15 shots to give Idaho the lead at 14:13 of the opening period, but that was all the scoring from either team in the first 20-minutes.
Things changed quickly in the middle frame, as the Steelheads scored four more times and the Eagles scored twice.
Scoring a power play goal 31-seconds in to the second period and adding another tally at 4:21, Idaho defenseman Aaron Harstad pushed the lead to 3 to 0 for the home team.
Before the Eagles could regroup, Luciani added his second goal to the Steelhead scoring onslaught at 5:33.
Aaron Harstad
Eagles Coach Aaron Schneekloth used his timeout to give his shell shocked troops a chance to shake it off and regain their confidence.
Register was able to get the Eagles on the scoreboard by converting on the power play with a well placed one-timer from the blueline with assists from Matt Garbowsky and Belzile.
At 14:14 it was Matt Garbowsky’s turn to put the puck in the net on a rebound generated by Belzile and Register to cut the Idaho lead in half at 4-2.
Idaho reinstated the three goal lead when Andre Bouvet-Morrissette beat Lukas Hafner on a breakaway at 15:33 to complete the Steelheads scoring, taking a 5-2 lead into the third period.
After failing to capitalize on two power plays in the third period, Idaho was content to clamp down defensively and attempt to hold on for the win.
But Colorado had other ideas and at 17:32 of regulation a deflection in front of the net resulted in Julien Nantel getting the puck past Landon Bow to give the Eagles their third goal.
Alex Belzile
At 18:01, with Hafner on the bench for the extra attacker, Belzile was called upon to get the best of his old teammates to cut the deficit to one.
Hafner was again pulled for the man advantage when Register, with less than nine seconds to go, pounded a slap shot from near the blueline to tie the game and send it to overtime.
A mere 41-seconds into the first overtime period, Belzile gained possession of the puck behind the goal line and lifted a bad angle shot high past Bow for the win.
Game five of the series will be played Saturday, April 22 at Century Link Arena in Boise, Idaho beginning at 7:10 P.M.
Article and photos courtesy of Terry Sanford for prohockeynews.com
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