The Colorado Eagles traveled to California this week for back-to-back games against the Coachella Valley Firebirds (SEA) on Saturday night and the San Diego Gulls (ANA) on Sunday. They came away with two big victories against their Pacific Division rivals.

Saturday Night: 3-1 victory

Goaltender Trent Miner returned to the Eagles and secured a victory in his first game back. Danil Gushchin scored the first goal of the night sixteen minutes into the first period. In the second period, the Eagles outshot the Firebirds 14–5, but didn’t score again until more than halfway through the third period when Tristen Nielsen scored his fourth goal of the year. Less than two minutes later, Alex Barré-Boulet added this beauty.

The Firebirds scored one goal late in the game, but it was too little too late.

Sunday night: 3-1 victory

Not only was this the second of a back-to-back, it was also the sixth game the Eagles played in only ten days. The tiredness showed a bit early on with the first goal being scored for the Gulls by former Eagle Matthew Phillips. It’s one of the few times the Eagles have failed to score first in a game. They rallied in the second though, outshooting the Gulls 11–8. The hard work paid off as Bryan Yoon scored his first as an Eagle. Then in the third period, Ronnie Attard also scored his first goal as an Eagle.

Keaton Middleton topped it off with an empty-net goal in the final minutes of the game.

Views from the Mountaintop

For the first six games of the season, scoring seemed to be dominated by a few skaters. Danil Gushchin and Tristen Nielsen scored nine of the team’s twenty goals in that time, with TJ Tynan assisting on most of them. But in the last four games, more names have appeared on the scoresheet. Alex Barré-Boulet has three goals and four assists in that time. Ronnie Attard and Bryan Yoon both had their first goals as Eagles. Keaton Middleton and Tye Felhaber scored their first goals of the season. And Taylor Makar has two assists in his last three games, having missed the Saturday game because of a call-up to the Colorado Avalanche.

After a massive slump, the power play is back! (Mostly, that is.) The Eagles were three of four on the power play in their first game. Then, over the next four games, they were zero of 16. But things are looking up. Over the last six games, they’ve scored eight times out of eighteen power plays. It’s still not consistent, though, as they were zero of three in Sunday’s game.

It was reported by Kevin McGlue during the third period that Chase Bradley was no longer on the bench. It’s unknown what happened or whether he’ll be out for an extended period. Bradley has two goals so far this season, both of them in the very first game against the Calgary Wranglers (CGY). His contributions go beyond points, though. The team would miss him because he is a hardworking hustler.

Up Next

The Eagles, who have won their last four games and are now 9–2–0, head back to Coachella Valley for a game on Wednesday night against the Firebirds (SEA), who are 3–4–1–0. AHLTV on FloHockey.com will stream the game.