Visiting Colorado pins rare shutout loss on the Blazers

For the Blazers, two moments that started out good and ended up bad told much of the story Saturday night at the Ford Center.

Colorado regained its home ice advantage, beating the Blazers 4-0 before 9,309 disappointed Oklahoma City fans. It is only the third shutout loss in the playoffs in Blazers history.

One night after the Blazers won at Colorado, the Eagles evened the Central Hockey League series. Game 3 is Monday night in Oklahoma City.

"We might have played til 2 or 3 in the morning before we scored a goal,” Blazers coach Doug Sauter said. "It was very disappointing.”

Saturday's first defining moment came less than two minutes into the game. Just 36 seconds after the Blazers started the first power play of the game, Colorado scored the first goal of the game.

The Eagles' all-everything right winger, Greg Pankewicz, sent a long clearing pass to teammate Sean Robertson, who then scored on a breakaway. The goal came 36 seconds after the Blazers' power play had started.

"We turned it over right at the blue line and everybody thought the puck was going in, so we were all leaning the wrong way,” Sauter said. "They're an opportunistic team. When you make a mistake they'll jump on it and capitalize. They feed off of turnovers.”

Saturday's second defining moment came five minutes into the second period. The Blazers barely missed scoring a goal as Marty Standish's centering pass to an onrushing Chad Hinz was off by an inch or so.

Colorado then went down the ice and scored, as Seth Leonard stole a Blazers pass and sent the puck to Riley Nelson, who scored. The Eagles had a 2-0 lead 5:36 into the second period.

"There was an open net but the puck went right through the crease,” Sauter said, "and then they go in and score on a turnover. As soon as we blew a chance to score, they scored.”

Clearly, the star of the game was Colorado rookie goaltender Tim Boron. An emergency replacement for injured backup Paulo Colaiacovo, Boron played in his first Eagles game in nearly two months, since Feb. 17. Regular goalie Marco Emond was rested.

"It was good to get the young guy back in the lineup again, and he didn't disappoint anybody,” Eagles coach Chris Stewart said. "He'd been out with quite a bad injury and we just finally got him healthy enough where he could practice full.

"I felt overall that we played a real simple game and the guys worked harder tonight. That's really what it comes down to is being able to get out there and work hard, and that's what made it work for us tonight.”

Colorado finished the scoring with two goals in a four-minute span of the third period.