LOVELAND, Colo. – The loud and proud crowd of Eagles fans showed up to see their Colorado Eagles sweep the pesky Wichita Thunder in Game four of the Mountain Division Semi-Final series on Friday night. Instead, they were presented with a thorough drubbing from the Thunder to the tune of a 6-0 shutout.
Scoring two goals in each of the three periods, Wichita dismantled the Eagles finely-tuned defence and denied their skilled scorers with the expertise of the games #1 star – Shane Starrett in goal.
Shane Starret #1 Star of the game – 29 save Shutout
Things seemed to go awry for the Eagles from the puck drop to start the game when Eagle Joey Ratelle dropped the gloves with Evan Polei and spent the first five minutes of the game sitting in the penalty box.
Wichita started the scoring at 7:08 into the contest with Ryan Van Stralen beating Eagles starting goalie Joe Cannata for the 1-0 lead. With 1:46 left in the opening frame, the aforementioned Polei added to the Eagles deficit with a one-timer on the power play to give the Thunder a 2-0 lead.
#26 Dyson Stevenson #2 Star
Next up on the goal scoring onslaught for the Thunder was Dyson Stevenson who pushed the lead to 3-0 early in the second period, followed four-minutes later by Mark MacMillan’s goal for a 4-0 Wichita lead and a goalie change for the home team as Cannata was replaced by Lukas Hafner 6:34 into the middle frame.
Period three saw Hafner come out of his net to challenge Etienne Boutet on a breakaway and lose the battle, ending up in a 5-0 deficit at the 3:03 mark.
Marc-Olivier Crevier-Morin #3 Star of the game -2 assists
The final humiliation came with less than a minute to play in the game with Wichita’s Travis Brown racking up goal number six for the final score of 6-0.
The good news for the Eagles is they will have very little time to dwell on their poor performance and get back to playing hockey as the Eagles and Thunder will play Game five Saturday night April 21st at the Budweiser Events Center. Game time is 7:05 MDT.
Article and Photos courtesy of Terry.Sanford@prohockeynews.com
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