Loveland – In Ralph Backstrom’s first two years of his NHL career with Montreal, he lived at the home of Scotty Bowman’s parents. Like their son, the Colorado Eagles general manager and part owner picked up a thing or two about winning hockey championships.
Backstrom went on to win six Stanley Cups with the Canadiens. But because they didn’t give out rings in those days, he only has one – made years later – commemorating all six Cups. He is halfway home to getting his second diamond-studded bauble, this time with the Eagles, who beat the Laredo (Texas) Bucks 4-1 on Wednesday night in Game 2 of the Central Hockey League Finals.
“We’ve seen his ring, and it’s just loaded with diamonds,” Eagles center Riley Nelson said. “It gives us a lot of motivation to try to get one for ourselves. Winning a championship is all I can think about right now. I’ve had dreams about it every night lately. I can’t sleep.”
Another sellout crowd at the Budweiser Events Center watched the Eagles easily take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, with Game 3 on Sunday in Laredo.
Fraser Filipic scored his first two goals of the playoffs for Colorado, and goalie Tyler Weiman had another strong showing. Weiman again kept the Bucks frustrated in the early going with some excellent stops.
“We were solid in both ends tonight,” said Weiman, who stopped 23 of 24 shots. “But now we go to play possibly three straight games in their building, so we know it’s going to get tougher.”
Filipic’s second goal of the night, at 12 minutes, 32 seconds of the second period, stemmed the gathering momentum after Laredo cut a 2-0 deficit in half with a Mark Wires goal early in the period. Filipic, who piled up 451 penalty minutes in one season of his junior career, nicely finished off a pass from defenseman Karlis Zirnis to make it 3-1.
“That’s the first time I’ve scored two in a game in a long time,” Filipic said. “I was just wide-open in front, and the puck happened to come to me.”
CHL most valuable player Greg Pankewicz put the game out of reach with a goal midway through the third, his 10th of the playoffs.
The Eagles outshot Laredo 42-24 and haven’t allowed the Bucks to reach double figures in shots for a period in the series.
Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
