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 even at a game apiece after Colorado scored four times in the final five minutes of Game 2 to pull out a 5-2 victory on Saturday night.
T.J. Hughes (4-5-9) scored the winning goal with 4:08 to play, just 52 seconds after Jacob MacDonald had 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 captained the Wolverines to a Frozen Four appearance, was named Big Ten Player of the Year, and was selected as a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award this season.
Colorado head coach Mark Letestu said the message in the locker room during the second intermission was to relax.
“This is how the playoffs are supposed to feel,” Letestu said. “It’s meant to be hard. They’re a really good team, and it took a lot of patience, a lot of grinding… and then to finally get that goal you get some good feelings. Embrace the ‘hard’ and eventually things are going to go for you.”
The Eagles outshot the Wolves in Game 2 by a 30-15 margin, including 13-1 in the third period. Chicago went more than 26 minutes without recording a shot from late in the second period until the final minute of regulation.
Head coach Spiros Anastas called the effort “uncharacteristic” of his club.
“Get pucks below the goal line, make their D turn, pressure them… We were doing that (in the second period) and then we took a very undisciplined penalty (a boarding major to Dominik Badinka) and that tilted the momentum,” Anastas said. “It was great to kill it, but it changed the course of the game. It was promising that if we play a good five-on-five game, we’re confident that we can control the pace of play.”
Quick Hits:
- 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.
- With its four-goal third period on Saturday, Colorado is now outscoring its opponents 18-5 in the final frame this postseason, and 32-12 after the first intermission.
- In six previous appearances, the Wolves are 13-3 in home games during the Calder Cup conference final round.
- In Calder Cup Playoff history, there have been 210 best-of-seven series tied after two games. The Game 3 winner has gone on to win the series 151 times (71.9 percent).
