The Eagles now know the place, the time, and the opponent for the upcoming best-of-five Pacific Division Finals.
With the Abbotsford Canucks finishing off the Coachella Valley Firebirds in four games last night, that set up a match-up between the Eagles and Abbotsford that begins Friday. For the Eagles, it will mean a nine-day break between series after they handled the San Jose Barracuda in four games.
Colorado, the Pacific Division regular-season champion, have the option of opening the 2-3 series at home or on the road; they elected to begin in Abbotsford before coming home to finish the series.
Head coach Aaron Schneekloth pointed to how his team handled a series-deciding win on Wednesday after John Ludvig departed in the first period leaving the Eagles with five defensemen. Scoreless through two periods, the Eagles went down a goal early in the third before responding with three unanswered goals to close out the series.
“You look at the leadership up and down our lineup,” Schneekloth said. “They’re putting a lot of pressure on us, and they’re controlling the play for a lot of that game. Something we talked about after the second is, ‘Let’s get a reset. What’s in the past is in the past. We know how we need to play.’”
The Eagles possess a deep roster of veterans led by captain Jayson Megna, T.J. Tynan, Jacob MacDonald, Matthew Phillips, Calle Rosén and Chris Wagner. Tynan and MacDonald were both previously Eagles captains, and all are well-regarded pros around the AHL. Phillips, Rosén and Tynan all have their names on the Calder Cup.
“The bench is positive,” Schneekloth added. “It’s led by our veteran guys, and it has been all season long. Belief in this locker room is as good as I’ve ever seen, and we didn’t quit. We stuck with it, and we got rewarded.”
After three road teams – Providence, Hershey and Milwaukee – won to stave off elimination last night, visitors are 26-20 during the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs.
The road team has won all four games to date in both the Charlotte-Providence and Milwaukee-Rockford series.
During the regular season, road teams won 48.9 percent of games across the league.
― with files from Patrick Williams
