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RiverKings Give Eagles Scare, But Colorado Moves to 8-0

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – The Colorado Eagles improved their franchise-best start to 8-0 tonight with a 4-2 win against the Mississippi RiverKings.  The game marked Head Coach Kevin McClelland’s return to Mississippi, and his new team made sure it was a successful one, as the team’s winning streak is now the third-longest in team history at any point in a season.

Colorado/Mississippi Box Score

The opening 20 minutes of play were fairly quiet, with both goaltenders silencing every shot they faced and both penalty-killing units going a perfect 3-3.  Jay Birnie and David Simoes attempted to turn things up when they dropped the gloves at 15:43, but no carryover resulted for either club.

The second period saw Colorado take a 2-1 lead, as Greg Pankewicz started the scoring just 1:24 in while both teams staked 4-on-4.  The Eagles’ captain took the puck off the right wing boards, circled up and around the faceoff circle and then deftly stepped right around the lone RiverKings defender before blasting an uncontested shot past Kevin Beech from the high slot.  But the RiverKings answered at 8:07 when Louis Dumont was sprung on a breakaway coming out of the penalty box, and he blasted his own uncontested shot past Morgan Cey from the left hash marks.  Konrad Reeder restored the Eagles’ lead at 14:39 after collecting a turnover just inside the offensive zone.  His initial shot from the high slot was stopped by the Mississippi netminder, but the diminutive forward picked up his own rebound, skated to the right of the net to get Beech to go down, and deposited the puck top shelf on a sharp-angled shot.

The CHL’s top power play finally broke through in the third with Aaron Schneekloth getting the game-winner at 6:41 on a shot from the high slot.  But at the time, the RiverKings made it interesting by answering just 18 seconds later when Dane Marshall found Dallas Costanzo alone in the low slot with a dish from behind the net to restore the game’s tension.  The score remained 3-2, Colorado, until the final minute when Riley Nelson was able to deflect a Jason Beatty shot into an empty net with 52 seconds remaining.

The two teams meet again Saturday night for the second in a pair of back-to-back games at the DeSoto Civic Center.  Colorado’s next home game will be on Saturday, November 8 against the Rapid City Rush.