Youngstown SteelHounds Face Colorado Eagles in Frist Round of CHL Playoffs - CHL (Central Hockey League)

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MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - Youngstown SteelHounds versus Colorado Eagles
CHL Playoffs First Round - Game Three (best-of-seven, Eagles lead series 3-0)

at the Chevrolet Centre (capacity – 2,783)

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Referee- Tudor Floru; Linesmen – Chris Libett and Nick Sosnowski

Scoring:
Eagles- 1-1-3 5

SteelHounds- 1-0-1 2

Shots:
Eagles- 6-8-6 20

SteelHounds- 9-19-12 30

Goal Scorers:

Eagles (5) – Craig Strain (1), Ed McGrane SH (2), Brent Hughes (2), Ed McGrane (3), Ed McGrane EN (4)

SteelHounds (2) – Sirianni (1), Landolt (2)

Goaltending:

Eagles: Marco Emond (2-0) (WIN) 2 goals allowed on 30 shots

SteelHounds: David Currie (0-2) (LOSS) 4 goals allowed on 19 shots

Youngstown, Ohio – The Youngstown SteelHounds put together another tough effort but once again the effort was not enough as the Colorado Eagles were able to take a 5-2 victory and now have a 3-0 lead in this best of seven series. The Hounds will now need to win on Friday night in order to stay alive in the President’s Cup Playoffs.

The first period started off with lost of back and forth action but neither team registering a goal that was until the 9:52 mark when Craig Strain was left all alone to put the puck past David Currie and give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. For Strain it’s his first goal of the playoffs and shockingly for the Eagles it marked the first time that they scored first in this series. The Hounds answered back when called up amateur Rob Sirianni received a pass from Jeff Christian and had enough time to bang a wrist shot past Marco Emond to tie the game at one with 6:39 to play in the opening period. The four year Bemidji State Beaver picked up first professional goal from the man who was honored for being the Central Hockey League’s Most Valuable Player during the regular season.

Just the like the two games in Colorado the first playoff game in Chevrolet Centre history was physical as guys were colliding left and right including Eagle rookie Brett Thurston who left his feet to send Tab Lardner to the ice. Lardner got up and Thurston received a penalty for his troubles. The second period saw less finesse and more dump and chase hockey as both teams had a hard time controlling the puck throughout the period. It appeared that the teams were going to skate into the third period tied at one but with 3:21 to go in the period and Youngstown on the power play an errant dump in by Stephen Margeson made its way to center ice where Ed McGrane was able to skate in all alone and put a wrist shot up high and beat David Currie to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead after two periods. Brent Hughes was credited the assist on the shorthanded goal to give Colorado momentum going into the final frame.

The third period started off fantastic for the SteelHounds as Shaun Landolt tied the game at two just 1:45 into the period on a pretty wrap-around after a point shot from defenseman Kelly Sickavish. The tally was Landolt’s second of the series as he scored in the third period of game two to seemingly give the Hounds the momentum in that game as well. Unfortunatley though for the Hounds déjà vu struck again as the Eagles turned on the jets and pushed their way to another victory. At the 7:38 mark Brent Hughes was left all by himself in the slot after receiving a pass from Ryan Tobler and that put the Eagles back in the lead and up for good as Ed McGrane knocked home two more including an empty netter from 190 feet away with 1:24 to go to give the Eagles the 5-2 victory.

McGrane became the second Eagle in this series to record a hat trick as Riley Nelson accomplished the feat in game one. Ryan Tobler notched three assists in the game and to go along with two goals from earlier in the series he now has five points. Marco Emond proved to be the backbone for the Eagles as he made 28 saves on 30 shots to put the Eagles in position to move on with a victory in game four on Friday night. The Hounds need a victory on Friday night otherwise their first ever trip to the playoffs may indeed be a short one.

Lineups:

Youngstown - - - (Goaltenders) 35- Brad Roberts, 37- David Currie X (Forwards) 7- Brad Patterson (A) , 9- Anderson, 14- Chris Richards (A), 19- Shaun Landolt X, 20- Rob Sirianni, 21- Mark Johnson, 22- Garrett Larson, 25- Mark Odut , 39- Chris Shaffer X, 41- Tab Lardner X, 72- Jeff Christian (C) (Defense) 4- Matt Hanson, 8- Josh Reed, 27- Jeff Alcombrack (A) X, 30- Milan Maslonka X, 47- Stephen Margeson, 56- Kelly Sickavish

Scratches - - - 9- Anderson

Colorado - - - (Goaltenders) 1- Marco Emond X, 31- Paulo Colaiacovo (Forwards) 9-Chris Hartsburg X, 11- Ed McGrane, 12- Riley Nelson (A) X, 17- Ryan Tobler, 18- Seth Leonard X, 20- Brent Hughes, 21- Fraser Filipic, 25- Scott Polaski, 29- Sean Robertson, 89- Greg Pankewicz (C) (Defense) 15- Jay Birnie, 16- Brett Thurston, 22- Craig Strain, 23- Aaron Schneekloth, 25- Polaski X, 27- Brad Williamson (A) X, 33- Les Borsheim

Scratches - - - 33- Borsheim

X-denotes starters

Three Stars: 1. Ed McGrane (COL) 2. Marco Emond (COL) 3. Ryan Tobler (COL)