Four goals in the final five minutes of last night’s Game 2 gave Colorado a 5-2 victory over Chicago, but the Eagles know how close they are to falling into an 0-2 series hole on the road.
“We haven’t gotten to this point because we were a lucky team,” Colorado’s head coach Mark Letestu said. “It’s because they were a good team. The boys believe they are a good team.”
With the Wolves leading 2-1, Colorado tied the score at 15:00 of the third period. Jacob MacDonald (1-1-2) scored his first goal of the playoffs.
In Chicago Nikita Pavlychev then took a sticking penalty on the ensuing center-ice faceoff, too TJ Hughes (4-5-9) scored with 4:08 to play to give Colorado a 3-2 lead. Jason Polin (1-5-6) and Ivan Ivan (2-9-11) hit an empty netter to complete the scoring.
The Wolves went more than 26 minutes without a shot; their only shot of the entire third period was an attempt Ronan Seeley 52.5 seconds left.
“It’s not just the last five minutes,” said the Wolves coach Spiros Anastas said after the loss. “I think the whole game was uncharacteristic for us. We took some unfair penalties. It could be the most disappointing loss of the season especially because of the fashion in which we lost.”
He went on to say, “It wasn’t the team we were in in the third period, we were playing too hard not to lose.”
The next three games of the series are at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., beginning with Game 3 on Tuesday (8 ET, 
).
“We got a split on the road, and now it’s three out of five as we play more games at home,” Anastas said. “We can take that as a positive.”
The Eastern Conference Finals resume Monday in Toronto (7 ET, ) after the Marlies won both games in Wilkes-Barre to start the series.
Friday’s 2-1 overtime loss in Game 2 left the Penguins with a job that only eight AHL teams have pulled off — winning the best-of-seven series after losing the first two games at home.
Two of those eight teams were Wilkes-Barre/Scranton clubs; the Penguins came back to beat Bridgeport in 2006 and Norfolk in 2011.
Michael Pezzetta (3-1-4) floats the shot from the point where it jumped out Sergei MurashovBlocker with 14:53 left in OT to give Toronto the Game 2 win. Pezzetta also scored the decisive goal in Game 1, breaking a 2-2 tie with 1:36 left in regulation.
“You look at the playoffs and any team that continues to win,” head coach Marlies John Gruden said. “The top lines slow themselves down and there’s always someone going up to the third or fourth line… We have four lines that can play the whole game, and we use them all.”
“He plays a very physical game,” the partner Marc Johnstone said of Pezzetta, who has played 209 games in the NHL over the past five seasons. “It created time and space for me again Reese (Johnson). A fun line to play with. We feed off each other, and both of these guys were unbelievable.”
