After splitting the first two games of the three game series with the Colorado Eagles the Idaho Steelheads were looking for a series victory Saturday night at Century Link Arena. Colorado winger Kevin Ulanski and his Eagles teammates had other ideas however. Ulanski’s hat trick led the Eagles to a dominating 5-1 victory in front of 4,186 fans that turned out with Teddy Bears in hand for the annual U.S. Marines Toys for Tots Teddy Bear toss.
With the crowd anxious to toss their teddy bears on the ice after the first Steelheads goal , Ulanski quieted the crowd with the first goal of his “natural” hat trick (three consecutive goals) at 8:06 of the first. Ulanski converted a pass from Captain Riley Nelson and fired a wrist shot that beat Idaho goalie Jerry Kuhn high to the stick side for a 1-0 lead.
Ulanski struck again at 12:42 as he finished off a short two on one break with winger Liam Hukulak and beat Kuhn who had no chance to go left to right nearly quick enough.
Idaho defenseman Derek Matheson picked a great time to score his first professional goal at 15:31 of the period. His wrist shot from the point beat Colorado goalie Kyle Jones and not only got his team back in the game but also started an avalanche of teddy bears to hit the Boise ice. Members of the Steelheads along with members of the armed services spent close to five minutes collecting and bagging thousands of stuffed toys for the Toys for Tots campaign.
Even after being outshot by a 17-8 margin in the first period the Steelheads remained in a good position as they finished the period down by just the single goal at 2-1 as the teams headed to the second.
Colorado dashed much of the hope and energy from the Steelheads early in the second as Ulanski completed the hat trick at 3:14 and forward Chad Costello made it 4-1 at 4:27 to severely dampen the mood in the building and on the bench.
The Steelheads did play a spirited final seven minutes of the period but failed to get anything past Jones and the period ended with the same 4-1 score on the scoreboard.
The third period was a predictably defensive period by the Eagles although they did manage to score the only goal of the period. Nelson finished off a passing play from Hukulak and Ulanski to make the final score 5-1 and send the home crowd out into the cold Boise evening looking for something to lift their spirits. Kuhn faced more than 40 shots for the eighth straight game and although he has played extremely well he was finally beginning to look a little tired.
The loss dropped the Steelheads to 9-12-2-1 on the season as they head to Stockton for games Friday and Saturday and Utah for a rare Monday game before returning home to play the ECHL leading Alaska Aces December 21-23.
On a positive note for the Steelheads, former Steelheads goaltender Richard Bachman won his first NHL game in his first NHL start. Bachman gave up just a single goal on 27 shots in theDallas Stars 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings Saturday night at Staples Center in downtown L.A.
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