The Colorado Eagles kicked off their season with two games on the road against the Tucson Roadrunners (UTA). After losing seven of last season’s top ten scorers, the Eagles had a slew of new players on the ice. Eagles captain Jayson Megna was also out of the lineup. He was hit in the face by a puck during last year’s playoffs and required a second surgery to fix the damage. He and his wife also welcomed a new baby a few days ago, so he has extra reason to stay home this weekend, but the expectation is that he’ll be back in the lineup soon.

Saturday night: 2–0 victory

Like the Colorado Avalanche, the Eagles ran with eleven forwards and seven defensemen. Five of the Eagles skaters were new to Colorado, plus both goalies.

The Roadrunners came out strong and dominated the first ten minutes of play, but the Eagles held their own and began finding their groove later in the first period. Ilya Nabokov initially looked twitchy in net. But he grew visibly calmer and more settled in the crease as he turned away shot after shot. The game remained tied at zero until midway through the second period when Nikita Prishchepov had a mini-breakaway along the boards and tucked one past Michael Hrabal.

Three minutes later, Gustav Stjernberg sent a shot toward the net. Jake Wise tipped it in to make the score 2–0.

Tucson outshot the Eagles all night, allowing only six shots on goal in the second (two of which found twine) and five in the third. Despite the shot discrepancy, the two teams were evenly matched. The Eagles gave up too many turnovers, but otherwise played a fairly strong defensive game. As a result, many of Tucson’s shots were low-danger chances from the outside.

Nabokov grew even steadier in net as the game wore on, making a barrage of saves as Tucson fought for their lives in the final minutes of the game.

He had another big save in the final two seconds to secure his first-ever AHL shutout.

Sunday night: 5–2 victory

Sunday night’s lineup was nearly identical to Saturday’s. One difference was Nikita Novoselov in net to make his North American debut. Also, Fabian Lysell was a bit banged up after Saturday’s game. Cooper Gay came into the lineup in his place.

The scoring started at 6:47 of the first period when Tristen Nielsen netted his first goal of the season.

At 14:49, Prishchepov found a loose puck on the side of the net and scored his second goal of the weekend after winning the faceoff to gain possession.

Tucson’s Montana Onyebuchi brought the Roadrunners within one late in the period, and the Eagles took a 2–1 lead into intermission.

Five minutes into the second period, Maroš Jedlička and Nielsen connected on a beautiful tic-tac-toe play to give the Eagles a 3–1 lead.

But Tucson once again scored late when Kevin Rooney found the net with only 51 seconds left in the middle frame. At the second intermission, the Eagles led 3–2. Only 2:58 into the third, Vadim Moroz snuck one past Novoselov, evening the score. At 11:42 of the third, Nielsen scored his second goal of the night, once again giving the Eagles a one-point lead.

Taylor Makar tacked on an empty-net goal late in the game to give the Eagles a 5–3 victory.

Takeaways:

In a pregame interview Saturday night with Kevin McGlue, head coach Jussi Ahokas talked about puck control and the turnovers that plagued the team on Saturday. The Eagles definitely had better puck control on Sunday, especially through the first half of the game. Hopefully, this is something that will continue to improve as the players get more comfortable with each other.

The Eagles’ penalty kill was perfect, killing seven Tucson power plays, including 32 seconds of five-on-three. Unfortunately, the power play was underwhelming. The Eagles had four power plays on Saturday and another four on Sunday, including a four-minute double-minor late in the game on Sunday. They converted none of them. This has been an ongoing problem for the Eagles for several seasons now.

Domenick Fensore finished the weekend with three assists. Nielsen and Prishchepov each scored two goals. Both goalies played well, but Nabokov was impressive. He demonstrated amazing rebound control, robbing Tucson of high-danger net-front chances.

Up Next

The Eagles’ host the Abbotsford Canucks next weekend for their home opener. They play at 7:05 MST on Friday and 6:05 MST on Saturday. AHLTV on FloHockey.com will stream the games.