Eagles take game one from Mavericks

LOVELAND, Colo. – With the Central Hockey League’s most outstanding goalie in net for the opposition, the Colorado Eagles knew the key to game one of this Turner Conference Semifinal match was to put a lot of pucks on net. After all was said and done the Eagles threw 45 pucks at the Mavericks net. Robby Nolan was there to stop 40 of them resulting in a 5 to 2 Eagles win.
The fellow minding the Eagles net, Andrew Penner, said it best after the game. “I thought the guys played unbelievable tonight. We’re playing the top goalie in the league and we are going to have to put a lot of shots on him and make him work to have success. He (Nolan) is a great first save goalie we just gotta find rebounds and stuff.”

Colorado Captain Riley Nelson started the scoring 42 seconds into the game when he won a face off and then picked up a rebound off a Dan Sullivan shot and pounded it home for the early 1-0 lead.
Missouri scored their only two goals of the game – the first to tie and the second to go one up – late in the first period with Ray Dilauro scoring a power play goal assisted by Toby Lafrance and Simon Watson at 15:37. Two minutes later, Lafrance took advantage of an Eagles defensive miscue to dig the puck out from Penner’s control and stuff it in the net for a one goal lead.
A couple of penalties on the Mavericks resulted in a late    5-on-3 for the Eagles. Kevin Ulanski scored off a Nelson pass 28 seconds into the two-man advantage to end the first period tied at two apiece.
In the middle frame, scoring was all Aaron Schneekloth as he tallied the eventual game winner off a nifty pass from Ulanski and minutes later scored the insurance goal from the high slot after accepting a pass from Nelson.
“Nelly made a great pass – it seemed to pop in the slot there,” Schneekloth said. “Bounces haven’t really been coming my way in the slot, but tonight they did!”
In the third period, the Eagles had to kill off three penalties to keep their two-goal advantage and with Nolan pulled for the extra attacker, Adam Hogg scored his first goal of the playoffs into an empty net to make the final score 5-2.
The Mavericks put 20 shots on Penner, and he made some spectacular saves on a few of them while giving up just two goals. He shared these final words on the outcome:
“The guys did an awesome job of scoring tonight, so basically I tried to make eighteen saves to secure the win.” Penner said. “Some games you have to steal one, but some games everybody shows up from top to bottom and it’s awesome.”
The second game of this best-of-five series will be played tonight, again at the Budweiser Event Center. Contact the writer/photographer at terry.sanford@prohockeynews.com