Eagles Takeaways: Innala’s first AHL hat trick clinches series sweep against San Jose

Jere Innala had his fist career AHL hat trick while Jacob MacDonald and Oskar Olausson also added tallies.

Loveland, CO — As the top stars for the Colorado Avalanche take on the Swedes in Montreal, the Colorado Eagles look for a series sweep in Loveland. Jacob MacDonald lit the lamp three times last night in the 6–3 victory over the San Jose Barracuda (SJS). He now leads the league among all defensemen in goals scored with 21 on the season. At the end of the night, the Eagles sit in a prominent position in the Pacific Division. They are in second place with a four point lead on third and trail the Calgary Wranglers (CGY) by one point in first. Here are the takeaways from the 5–2 victory over the Barracuda.

Takeaways

Colorado looked great on the all-veteran power play tonight, scoring their first two goals of the night on the man advantage. Jere Innala helped lead a charge into the zone with some gorgeous passing between Jake Wise and T.J. Tynan. It was Innala’s eighth of the season and with very little effort. Later in the first period, Tynan and Wise helped MacDonald for his 21st of the year (11th power play goal). Innala later would score again on the power play to top off the hat trick in the second period.

“Yeah, I think tonight was probably one of Innala’s better games since his return,” said head coach Aaron Schneekloth. “And we’ve been talking and showing him some videos. You know the game is different here than it is in the NHL. He’s getting more minutes, it’s probably a little bit more chaotic down here, so there’s a little adjustment for him coming down and he responded in a great way tonight, scoring two, two huge power play goals for us, and then getting that even strength one to take us a lead right after they scored. So it was nice. He was very productive tonight.”

The Eagles were applying a lot of pressure by using the stretch pass throughout the game. It may have been that the Barracuda defenders were going too far up in the zone, but the Eagles’ defensemen were hitting the forwards on the run. There were several instances that the Eagles were receiving the pass right on the blue line, keeping San Jose on their toes the entire game.

Trent Miner was in a unique situation tonight. With him being the third string goalie for the Avalanche, he is getting fewer starts than he did last year. He started for the Avalanche on January 8th, then the Avalanche reassigned him to the Eagles on the 12th. Between the 15th and 29th, he played three games before the Avalanche recalled him again last week. Miner saved 25 of 27 shots on goal tonight and did not look uncomfortable doing it. This “break” did not bother Miner at all, and he slotted right back into the flow for the win.

Upcoming

The Eagles will head back out on the road and up north to take on the Abbotsford Canucks (VAN) on Saturday, February 15th, at the Abbotsford Centre at 8 p.m. MT.