By: Brendan Price

Northern Colorado Eagles Head Coach Steve Haddon wasn’t happy with the team’s effort in their 6-4 loss to Pueblo on Saturday.

“We were outplayed, we came out flat, and didn’t finish our checks,” he began.

Sunday, however, was an entirely different story as the Eagles (5-3-0) prevailed in a gritty, physical 3-1 victory over the Pueblo Bulls (4-1-0) to earn a series split and stay in first place in the Mountain Division.

The first period passed without any scoring, but plenty of hard-nosed and physical play. With 9:11 left in the frame, Bulls forward Owen Ames took exception to his goaltender getting bumped and knocked down Quinn Dorris. Eagle rookie Alexis Lalonde flew onto the scene in defense of his teammate and belted Ames with a cross-check and both were sent to the penalty box for roughing. Neither team converted 4-on-4, nor their power play opportunity in the period and went to the dressing room scoreless after twenty minutes.

After a fruitless opening period on special teams, both teams found success in the middle frame. 

Just 2:50 into the second period, Eagle center Eric Horein found himself in the crease and banged a loose puck past Timmons to spot NoCo to a 1-0 lead early in the second period. The Bulls’ penalty kill accounted for their only goal of the game; center Scott Bugarin fired a shot into the back of the net after a clean faceoff win to tie the game 1-1 with 13:39 left in the second. The Eagles power play finished 1-for-5, thanks to a Horein wrist shot from the high slot that beat Timmons to the glove side and gave the Eagles a 2-1 lead just 2:55 after Pueblo tied the game. 

The Horein line just kept clicking in the third period; Horein fed a pass into the low slot for Marc-Antoine Prince, who buried a one-timer past Timmons just 2:25 into the third period to give the Eagles a 3-1 lead with 17:35 to play. 

With 11:21 left to play, Eagles netminder Ulrik Roussel made a pad save, one of his 29 saves on 30 shots, and covered up the rebound with Bull winger Isaac Hood crashing hard. Hood plowed right through Roussel, who gave Hood a faceful of equipment and triggered a brawl that saw three separate skirmishes break out in the Eagles’ zone. When the dust finally settled, four different roughing penalties were handed out to three different players.

The skirmish seemed to sap the last bit of life from the Bulls, who had just three shots on goal after the incident and were unable to sustain offensive zone time over the game’s final ten minutes. Roussel made a stick save as the buzzer sounded and the home side poured onto the ice to celebrate the victory.