Colorado Eagles forward TJ Hughes was designated Player of the Game for his assist and game-winner in Game Two of the Western Conference Finals. (Source: Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK)The Colorado Eagles beat the Chicago Wolves 5-2 to level the Western Conference Final 1-1.
The opening period produced only 12 shots between both sides. Colorado had nine of them and three came in the two power plays of the period for the Eagles. With the multiple man-advantage situations as well as shot advantage, Colorado managed to score a power play goal off the stick of forward Tristen Nielsen to get the Eagles up 1-0 entering the second frame.
Despite not scoring on their first power play of which 1:52 minutes had carried from the first to the second period, Chicago scored 15 seconds later on goalie Trent Miner who lost the puck after it bounced off the back boards to the stick of Wolves defenseman Joel Nystrom. The 24-year-old Swede planted the puck past Miner into the net to level scores at one apiece. After that, for the next 7:26 minutes, Chicago outshot Colorado 7-1 including three unsuccessful shots on their second power play. The Wolves did however get a go-ahead 5v5 goal after forward Ivan Ryabkin scored off a Nikita Pavlychev rebound to go up 2-1 after 40 minutes. Chicago outshot Colorado 11-8 in the frame despite the Eagles having a five-minute power play towards the end where they put up three of their eight unsuccessful shots.
From the opening whistle of the third period, Colorado came in guns blazing and were relentless: the Eagles posted nine straight shots of the frame culminating with a goal by defenseman Jacob MacDonald from the slot to tie the game at 2-2 at exactly the 15:00 minute mark. Chicago's woes weren't over as just six seconds later, Pavlychev was sent to the box to set up the Eagles' fourth power play. TJ Hughes scored Colorado's game-winner and the team's second man-advantage goal of the game to put the Avs AHL affiliates up for good at 3-2. With a couple empty-netters the Eagles took Game Two.
Colorado Eagles goalie Miner made 13 saves off 15 shots for a save percentage of 0.867.
Chicago Wolves goalie Cayden Primeau made 25 saves off 28 shots for a save percentage of 0.893.