The Western Conference Finals resume with Game 3 tonight (8 ET, 
) at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., the first of three games in four nights between the Wolves and Eagles.
The series is at one game after Colorado scored four times in the final five minutes of Game 2 to pull out a 5-2 victory on Saturday night.
TJ Hughes (4-5-9) scored the winning goal with 4:08 to play, after 52 seconds Jacob MacDonald he tied the game with his first goal of the playoffs. Hughes has 11 points in 14 games since joining the Eagles from the University of Michigan, where he led the Wolverines to the Frozen Four, was named Big Ten Player of the Year, and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award this season.
Colorado coach Mark Letestu he said the message in the locker room during the second break was to relax.
“This is how the playoffs should be handled,” said Letestu. “It’s meant to be tough. They’re a really good team, and it takes a lot of patience, a lot of grinding … and to finally get that goal you get a good feeling. Embrace the ‘hard’ and eventually things will work out for you.”
The Eagles outscored the Wolves in Game 2 30-15, including a 13-1 run in the third quarter. Chicago went more than 26 minutes without recording a shot from the end of the second period until the final minute of regulation.
The head coach Spiros Anastas he called his team’s “flawless” effort.
“Get pucks under the goal line, make their D, pressure them… We were doing that (in the second half) and then we took an indirect penalty (boarding major to Dominik Badinka) and that changed the momentum,” said Anastas. It was promising that if we play a good game five out of five, we are confident that we can control the pace of the game.”
Quick Highlights:
- Colorado scored two more power play goals in Game 2 and is now 4-for-11 in the series with the man advantage. Chicago’s power play is 3-for-7 in the series, and 8-for-21 (38.1 percent) in six games against the Eagles this season.
- In its third four-goal period on Saturday, Colorado has now outscored its opponents 18-5 in the final frame of the postseason, and 32-12 after the first break.
- In the last six games, the Wolves are 13-3 in home games in the final round of the Calder Cup conference.
- In Calder Cup Playoff history, there have been 210 best-of-seven streaks tied after two games. The winner of Game 3 has gone on to win the series 151 times (71.9 percent).
