BOISE, ID — The Idaho Steelheads (40-22-7) closed out the home portion of their regular season schedule in style at CenturyLink Arena behind a 31-save shutout from Branden Komm, as they blanked the Colorado Eagles (46-19-5) 3-0 on Saturday night in front of 5,220 fans.
Jefferson Dahl recorded a three-point night on the evening he was named the team’s Most Valuable Player for the regular season, factoring in on all three Steelheads goals and scoring a power play goal for his 21st of the season.
At 8:56 of the second period, the Steelheads were on the power play and Colorado defenseman Michael Sdao was down on the ice in pain. The Steelheads recognized the open ice behind the prone Sdao and moved the puck down low, where Kellan Lain slid a pass from the right corner to the back post for a Dahl finish.
At 13:26 of the second period, Dahl created another goal right off the face-off, pushing the puck forward past Eagles’ center Casey Pierro-Zabotel before slipping a pass to the front of the net that Rob Linsmayer redirected through Kent Simpson’s legs for a 3-0 Idaho lead, Linsmayer’s 17th goal of the year.
Brandon Anselmini opened the scoring for Idaho with a power play blast from the high slot, his fifth of the season at 7:02 of the first period. Simpson had lost his stick after getting it caught in the equipment of Aaron Harstad at the side of his net. As Simpson scrambled to recover it, Anselmini’s point blast found its way through him to put the Steelheads in front. Idaho was 2-for-5 on the power play for the evening.
Komm made ten saves in the third period for his second shutout of the season, and Idaho’s fourth. That included three saves on fast breaks, including a clear breakaway by Matt Garbowsky that Komm stopped by reaching back with his glove to sweep the puck out of the crease.
The Steelheads and Eagles combined for 116 penalty minutes on Friday night, which included coincidental roughing minors and matching fighting majors for Idaho’s Corbin Baldwin and Sdao. That bad blood spilled into Saturday night’s contest as well, with Baldwin and Sdao dropping the gloves to scrap three seconds into the game off the opening face-off.
The Steelheads finish with a 22-11-3 regular season record on home ice. They also reached the 40-win plateau for the 13th time in franchise history, and tenth in the ECHL. Only the South Carolina Stingrays have more 40-win seasons (13) than Idaho among active ECHL teams. The Toledo Walleye and Toledo Storm also combine for ten 40-win seasons in the ECHL.
The Steelheads will finish their regular season schedule with a three-game set at Sullivan Arena against the Alaska Aces, their final regular season visit to Anchorage with the Aces ceasing operations at the end of the season. Puck-drop is scheduled for 9:15 p.m. MT on Wednesday night.
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