Colorado Advances to Second Round with 5-2 Win over Silver Knights
May 6, 2022
LOVELAND, CO. – Colorado netted a pair of power-play goals and finished the night 6-for-6 on the penalty kill, as the Eagles defeated the Henderson Silver Knights, 5-2 on Friday. The win caps off a 2-0 series sweep for Colorado and now sends the Eagles to face the Ontario Reign in the Pacific Division semifinals. Goaltender Justus Annunen improved to 2-0 in the postseason, stopping 34 of the 36 shots he faced in the win.
Colorado would open the scoring when forward Stefan Matteau smashed a shot from the top of the crease that would beat Silver Knights goalie Jiri Patera five-hole and give the Eagles a 1-0 edge at the 8:22 mark of the first period.
A 5-on-3 power play later in the opening frame would see forward Martin Kaut field a cross-slot pass at the side of the net where he would snap a shot that would light the lamp and stretch Colorado’s advantage to 2-0 with 6:40 remaining in the opening 20 minutes of play.
Still leading 2-0 as the puck dropped on the second period, the Eagles would see Henderson slice the deficit in half when forward Pavel Dorofeyev buried a shot from the bottom of the right-wing circle to trim Colorado’s lead to 2-1 at the 6:21 mark of the middle frame. The Silver Knights would go on to outshoot the Eagles 14-5 in the period and the two teams would head to the second intermission with Colorado still on top, 2-1.
A power play early in the third period would set up forward Alex Beaucage to dart through the right-wing circle before blistering a shot into the back of the net to give the Eagles a 3-1 advantage just 1:59 into the period.
Colorado would strike again when forward Jean-Luc Foudy took advantage of traffic in front of the net when he lit the lamp with a wrister from the right-wing circle to push the Eagles lead to 4-1 with 9:10 still left to play in the contest.
Henderson would stem the tide when defenseman Layton Ahac buried a shot from the left-wing circle to slice the deficit to 4-2 at the 14:22 mark of the third stanza.
The Silver Knights would pull Patera in the closing minutes to bring out the extra attacker, but it would be Colorado forward Ryan Wagner who would take advantage with an empty-netter from deep in his own zone. The tally made it 5-2 with 2:32 remaining in the game.
The Eagles will be back in action when they continue the 2022 AHL Calder Cup Playoffs with Game One of their best-of-five Pacific Division semifinals series against the Ontario Reign on Wednesday, May 11th at 7:05pm at the Budweiser Events Center. Tickets for both games will go on sale at 12pm on Saturday, May 7th and will be available for purchase at ColoradoEagles.com or by calling the ticket department at (970) 686-7468.
