Professional playoff hockey is still happening on the Front Range. It’s a little too far north for the Avalanche’s liking, but it’s a perfect scenario for Avs president Pierre Lacroix and his family.
Lacroix’s son, Eric, is a co-owner and assistant coach of the Arizona Sundogs. The Central Hockey League franchise captured the first two games of the President’s Cup Finals against the Colorado Eagles and visits Loveland’s Budweiser Events Center for Games 3, 4 and 5 (if necessary) on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Eric Lacroix is one of two Sundogs owners and assists head coach and general manager Marco Pietroniro. Lacroix played for the Avalanche and four other NHL teams, enjoying his best season in 1996-97 with 18 goals and 36 points.
Lacroix, 36, is one of a handful of familiar Front Range names involved in this series. The Eagles have former Colorado College forwards Scott Polaski and Scott Thauwald, who served as the Tigers’ captain in 2007-08, and former University of Denver defenseman Erik Adams. Arizona forward Tyler Liebel also played at CC.
Meanwhile, the Eagles — defending CHL champions — will regain the services of Greg Pankewicz and Jay Birnie on Wednesday. In Saturday’s 5-1 Game 2 loss at Arizona, Pankewicz and Birnie completed their three- game suspensions for participating in a bench-clearing brawl in Game 6 of the Eagles’ previous series against the Texas Brahmas.
Pankewicz, who had 24 goals and 76 points in 58 regular-season games, leads the Eagles with six playoff goals and is tied with Ed McGrane and Riley Nelson with 13 points. In just 11 playoff games, the 36-year-old Pank- ewicz has racked up 72 penalty minutes.
Penalties have hurt the Eagles in the first two games. In Game 2, Arizona built a 3-0 lead on three power-play goals.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
DRIVING FORCE
First racer to go 300 mph in Colorado reaches milestone.
National Hot Rod Association legend John Force — who in 1996 became the first person to make a 300 mph pass in Colorado — celebrated his 59th birthday Sunday by producing his record 1,000th elimination-round victory in Madison, Ill.
After beating Ron Capps in a first- round race, the NHRA suspended the round to bring Force back to the start line and accept a crystal trophy from NHRA president Tom Compton.
Force, left, who will compete at the July 11-13 Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway — Colorado’s only surviving elite-level auto race — previously became the first driver to compete in 500 NHRA events.
TV GAME OF THE WEEK
All-Pennsylvania Eastern Conference finals.
The Pittsburgh Penguins, the worst team in the Eastern Conference two years ago, play the cross-state rival Philadelphia Flyers — the East’s worst team last season — for a berth in the NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals.
What could be better than that? Perhaps a Penguins-Red Wings clash in the NHL Finals would exceed the all-Pa. series, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The Penguins-Flyers series — the teams’ first playoff matchup since 2000 — should be a dandy.
CARDINALS COMING
Rockies host Cards this week.
Good win for the Rockies on Sunday. They beat the Dodgers 7-2 at Coors Field, downing L.A. for the first time this season and avoiding the insult of standing alone with the fewest wins in baseball.
Colorado (12-19) is tied with San Diego (12-20), Cincinnati (12-20) and Pittsburgh (12-19) for the fewest wins in the major leagues, and won’t be favored to climb out of that hole this week.
Tonight, the Rockies start a four-game series at Coors Field against St. Louis, which is alone atop the National League’s Central Division, 1 1/2 games ahead of the Chicago Cubs.
IN MAY, WE PREP OUT
High school championships in action.
One of the busiest times of the prep sports season is upon us. State tournaments in baseball, girls soccer, tennis and lacrosse are heating up. Catch all the schedules and scores on .
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
Bozak will be back.
It’s a good time to renew your University of Denver hockey tickets for the 2008-09 season. The Pioneers got great news last week from freshman Tyler Bozak, who announced he would return to DU for his sophomore season.
Bozak, an undrafted NHL free agent, paced DU with 18 goals and 34 points last season and garnered interest from numerous NHL teams.
He said he instructed his “family adviser” — otherwise known as an uncontracted agent — to let all NHL teams know of his intention to return to school.
With Bozak back, DU is pegged to return 11 of its top 12 forwards from last season, and incoming freshman Joe Colborne could be the program’s next superstar.
Last week, Colborne was named Canada’s junior-A player of the year, and in June he could be DU’s first NHL first-round draft pick since defenseman Craig Redmond in 1984.
