Eagles Takeaways: Colorado roars back in winning fashion against Abbotsford

The Eagles had five different goal scorers including Chad Hillebrand’s first AHL goal in their 5–3 win over the Abbotsford Canucks.

Loveland, CO — The Colorado Eagles battle the Abbotsford Canucks (VAN) once again after losing last night in a lackluster overtime defeat. Late last night, the Colorado Avalanche reassigned Trent Miner to the Eagles but did not play because of the long travel from Edmonton. Instead, Kevin Mandolese got his first start in net since January 19th against Coachella Valley (SEA). Colorado has one of the best records at home in the league with a 16–4–2–2 record. With the dominant 5–3 win over the Canucks, the Eagles now move into second place in the division with three games in hand. Here are the takeaways from the victory.

“Yeah, we weren’t very happy with our game last night,” said forward Matthew Phillips. “We thought we could have been a lot better. I mean, it wasn’t perfect tonight, but I think for the most part, we stuck to our game. And we’ve had a lot of games this year where we just kind of takeover in the third period, and that’s really good.”

Takeaways

Chad Hillebrand, who was just recently recalled from the ECHL Utah Grizzlies, scored his first goal of the season for the Eagles and his first AHL goal. Hillebrand has been getting scratched out of the lineup as the odd man out, but has been improving every time he gets to play. He is a lanky forward who looks to set up the play and finally got his own time to shine with the tap in to open scoring tonight. Hillebrand would also add an assist to his tally, making for his first multi-point night of the season.

“You could tell he did a lot of work down there (with Utah),” said head coach Aaron Schneekloth. “(He) worked on his game, and he played to his identity tonight. He was working hard. He was physical finishing his checks. He wasn’t afraid to hold on to the puck. He was always at the net front. Created some chaos. So that’s the type of game he needs to play.”

The Eagles cleaned up their neutral zone play compared to last night, and it reduced the amount of turnovers they had. By doing this, they got the puck into the Abbotsford zone more often. It also led to more chances later in the game, despite another “slow” start. Colorado may have not been getting many shots on net to start the game, but they were high-quality shots. The Eagles had two goals in the first five shots on goal.

Colorado was using their speed to get lower in the zone and get chances all night long. Hillebrand was one example and Jean-Luc Foudy was another. Foudy used his speed to work his way to the slot and power a shot and take back the lead late in the second period. Besides this, the Eagles’ passing was more effective. They were looking before they passed the puck and it made for tape-to-tape passes and faster exits out of the zone.

Upcoming

The Eagles will take on the San Jose Barracuda (SJS) on Tuesday, February 11th at Blue Arena at 7 p.m. MT.