From ice to grass, Eagles to Outlaws, Colorado will be awash this weekend in starts and stops and reasons to watch. Just as one team nears an end (a triumphant finish, it hopes), another begins a haul (for a dominating run, it hopes).
Eagles close to third league title.
The Colorado Eagles, the most consistently successful team in the Central Hockey League, have won more than 70 percent of their games since joining the CHL in 2003. The Eagles can add to their dominance starting tonight in Loveland. They host the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs in the CHL championship round, playing for the Ray Miron Presidents’ Cup title.
It’s the Eagles’ fifth championship appearance in seven seasons. But while the Eagles have two CHL titles (in 2005 and 2007), they also have lost in the final round two of the past three seasons.
To get this far, the Eagles received 32 saves from Kyle Jones in a 1-0 shutout of the Rapid City Rush on Wednesday in the deciding game of the conference finals. Colorado is 4-0 all time in Game 7s.
The championship series with the Mudbugs starts tonight at the Budweiser Events Center. Game 2 is there Saturday. Both games begin at 7 p.m.
Get a peek at Peet.
Saturday in Denver, the Outlaws start their Major League Lacrosse season with perhaps the most offensive firepower in the game. After trading Tuesday to acquire Chesapeake Bayhawks attacker Peet Poillon, the Outlaws have two of MLL’s top scorers from last season. Poillon ranked third in the league with 24 goals and 41 points. The Outlaws’ Brendan Mundorf was fourth with 22 goals and 38 points.
The Outlaws have been a successful MLL team since their inception in 2006. They are 45-23 overall, with three championship game appearances. But they have yet to win the Steinfeld Cup as league champions.
This year, the Outlaws likely will battle with the Boston Cannons for regular-season supremacy. The Outlaws finished behind Boston a year ago. And they will need to knock off Chesapeake, the 2010 Cup winner.
Denver’s season opener is Saturday at 7 p.m. against the Hamilton Nationals at Invesco Field at Mile High.
AROUND TOWN
Pioneer spirit on display.
The hottest ticket in town this weekend might be Sunday’s University of Denver men’s lacrosse game.
DU hosts Villanova at Peter Barton Stadium on the DU campus for a first-round NCAA Tournament game at 3:15 p.m. — the first of its kind played west of the Mississippi River.
Peter Barton Stadium seats about 2,000, and 500 “lawn” tickets also have been sold.
DU (13-2) is on a 10-game winning streak. The sixth-seeded Pioneers lost close games this season to national powers Syracuse and Notre Dame, but they beat defending NCAA champion Duke. Nobody else has played the fifth-seeded Blue Devils close.
“They always say, ‘If you’ve got a tough ticket, it’s a good product,’ and that’s a good thing,” DU coach Bill Tierney said this week. “It allows me to think bigger. It allows me to think of a bigger stadium and all those delusions of grandeur. . . . Like everything else, it has happened (at DU) a little quicker than we all expected.”
Mike Chambers, The Denver Post
STAY ON THE COUCH
United we watch.
Never mind a three-year MLS playoff drought.
D.C. United remains the most celebrated team in the history of the North American league, with four MLS Cup titles, four Supporters’ Shields as the regular-season champion and a CONCACAF Champions League title.
So it should not be taken lightly when the defending MLS champion Rapids play D.C. United at RFK Stadium in Washington at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
To refresh the memory, the Rapids trounced D.C. United 4-1 in Commerce City on April 3 in the first of their two meetings this season.
In that game, the Rapids received two goals from newly signed Caleb Folan and cruised to the victory.
But D.C. United has played well of late, with three points in two games — a 2-1 win over Seattle and a scoreless draw with FC Dallas.
Saturday’s game airs on Altitude.
GET OFF THE COUCH
Ready, set, run.
More than 1,000 runners will tackle the Colfax Marathon in Denver on Sunday. More than 9,000 are set for the half- marathon and marathon relay.
All well and exciting. But what about the rest of us slouches who want to run and have fun, but can’t hang in there for the long runs?
We’re lucky. The Colfax Marathon 5K will cap race weekend Sunday with a race around City Park.
The more casual, manageable 5K starts at 9 a.m., and serious runners are welcome too. The chip-timed race includes music and food.
Check out for more information.
WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE
Rugby returns to Denver area.
The vaunted Churchill Cup international rugby tournament moves to England this year after making Glendale its home in recent years.
But that hasn’t left Infinity Park empty.
The College Premier Division semifinals play out Saturday at Glendale’s marquee stadium, with two games involving the best college teams in the United States.
California meets Utah at 6 p.m., followed by Brigham Young vs. Arkansas State at 8 p.m.
BYU and Utah may be familiar to Front Range college rugby fans. Both survived the Western Conference against Air Force, Colorado, Colorado State and Wyoming, among others.
Saturday’s winners advance to the CPD championship game at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, on May 21.
For info, see .
Utah’s Thretton Palamo was a 2010 All-American.
