LOVELAND, Colo. – After going to overtime in games three and four, no extra time was needed for the Eagles to close out the best-of-seven ECHL Western Conference Finals Series in five games.
Colorado found another gear to ratchet up their offense, scoring five unanswered goals after falling behind 3-1 at 8:01 of the second period. Toledo did not score again from that point on in the 6-3 domination by the home team.
Toledo’s Tyson Spinks and Beau Schmitz accounted for the two goals from the Walleye about 10-minutes apart, sandwiched around an Eagles goal from Casey Pierro-Zabotel to account for the 2-1 lead for Toledo after one period.
Toledo added to their lead at 8:01 in the middle frame on a goal from Dane Walters to go up 3-1, but that was the end of the scoring for the Walleye.
Colorado got within one on a power play goal at 10:47 from Alex Belzile and Cam Maclise beat Jake Paterson at 16:09 for the 3-3 tie to close out period.
The final period was all Colorado as rookie Julien Nantel’s eventual game winning goal was scored unassisted on the rush at 1:29.
Cam Maclise netted his second of the night to open up a two goal lead at 4:05 and Shawn St – Amant laid it all to rest at 19:16 with an empty net goal for the final score of 6-3.
Shots on Goal-Toledo 25. Colorado 37.
Power Play Opportunities-Toledo 0 / 3; Colorado 2 / 4.
Jake Paterson took the loss stopping 31 of the 36 shots he faced while Kent Simpson got the win saving 22 of 25 shots from Toledo.
Here are a selection of shots from the Western Conference Championship Game:
Julien Nantel
Shawn St-Amant
Cam Maclise
Alex Belzile
Casey Pierro Zabotel
Kent Simpson
Jake Paterson
Eagles bench
Boikov and Rankin
Belzile, Schmitz
Belzile, St. Amant, A.J. Jenks, Pierro Zabotel, Caito
Simpson, Zimmerman, Shane Berschbach, Matt Register
Pierro-Zabotel, Jake Paterson
Simpson catch
Simpson, Kyle Bonis, Teigan Zahn
Jake Marto, Shawn St.-Amant, Luke Salazar. Teigan Zahn
Eagles Celebrate
Handshake
More Handshake
Taylor Trophy
Game One of the ECHL Kelly Cup Finals will be Friday May 26 at 7:05 P.M. at the Budweiser Event Center in Loveland Colorado. The Eagles will take on the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals between the South Carolina Stingrays and the Manchester Monarchs. South Carolina holds a 3-2 series lead with game six scheduled for a 7:00 pm start in Manchester on Monday night.
Article and photos courtesy of Terry Sanford for Prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.