Eagles Lose in Laredo, Win Three of Four on Road Trip

LAREDO, Texas – The Colorado Eagles lost the only game of their four-game road trip, 5-3, to the Laredo Bucks.  The meeting was the first for the Eagles in Laredo since last year’s President’s Cup finals. Three Bucks players had three points each (Jeff Bes, Adam Rivet and Serge Dube) to help power Laredo past the tired Colorado team as the Bucks always stayed one step ahead in a back-and-forth contest.

Playing their third game in two and a half days looked to have an effect on the Eagles as they came out a little lethargic, getting out-shot 13-8 and taking three penalties in the opening period.  Colorado had two early power play chances, but was unsuccessful on both.  Laredo, however would convert just after their first man-advantage chance would expire, and again on their third chance of the period.  At 10:12, Chris Korchinski and Rivet converted a two-on-one break with Korchinski passing from the bottom of the right-wing circle to Rivet below the left-wing circle; Rivet easily took advantage of an essentially empty net as Bryan Bridges was playing Korchinski’s shot.  The Eagles made it 1-1 at 16:05 when Riley Nelson sent Mike Lukajic in on a breakaway.  Lukajic beat Kevin Beech from in close on the back-hand.  The Bucks struck again just under a minute later when Bes threw a pass from low in the right circle toward Dube at the top of the crease.  The puck deflected off Bridges and in for a power play goal.  It could have been worse for Colorado, but Bridges made several solid glove saves and Aaron Schneekloth knocked a sure goal out of mid-air early in the period.

The second period played out similarly to the first.  The Eagles wasted a golden opportunity when the Bucks were called for three penalties in a matter of minutes – giving Colorado what was essentially a full 5-on-3 power play chance – but Laredo won most of the key faceoffs and Seth Leonard hit two posts as the opportunity was neutralized.  But at 12:30, the Eagles finally converted on the power play when Ed McGrane’s pass from the goal line found Scott Polaski inside the right faceoff dot and Polaski rifled the puck home.  Bes countered for Laredo just a minute and a half later, however (with the teams skating 4-on-4), when he chipped a second-chance shot over Bridges from in front of the net.  Laredo added another goal with 11.6 seconds left in the period to take a 4-2 lead when Korchinski scored a 4-on-3 power play marker.

Colorado’s red-hot third line got the Eagles within one again at 6:46 when Fraser Filipic – without his helmet – back-handed a pass through the low slot to Steve Haddon to the right of the net for an easy tap-in.  The score would stay at 4-3 until just 30 seconds remained when Rivet scored on an empty net from center ice.  The Eagles finished their four-game road trip with three wins, netting six of eight total points with a short bench as Jay Birnie and Greg Pankewicz did not play in any of the games.