Mile High Sports

Eagles, Wolves set for Game 7 after Chicago rallies to tie series

Brennan Vogt
elimination

Gavin Brindley (54) attempts to shove the puck through. (Photo courtesy of Colorado Eagles)

This story was originally published on Hockey Mountain High, part of the Mile High Sports network.

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LOVELAND, Colo. — On Sunday night, the Colorado Eagles had the chance to wrap up the Western Conference Finals in Game Six. Instead, they let the Chicago Wolves (CAR) do what their big brother, the Carolina Hurricanes, have been doing. The Wolves came back from a multi-goal deficit to win Game 6, 3-2, and force an elimination game with Game Seven on Monday night at Blue Arena.

First period

The Eagles were not messing around to open Game Six of the Western Conference Finals. They pushed the puck hard into the Wolves’ zone the entire period and gave no time to time to rest. Chicago thought they could gain some momentum off a penalty from Valtteri Puustinen, but Colorado allowed no shots on goal during the entire kill.

Several minutes later, Nikita Pavlychev got caught holding the stick. This gave the Eagles their first chance on the power play. As he walked the blue line, Jack Ahcan snapped in his first goal of the playoffs to start the scoring for the Eagles.

With 45 seconds left in the period, Colorado dumped the puck into the Chicago zone. Goaltender Amir Miftakhov tried to play the puck and clear it, but Tristen Nielsen stopped it along the wall. Nielsen wrapped around and sent a pass to the front for a tap-in for Puustinen and a 2–0 lead.

Second period

The middle frame was a little tougher for the Eagles. Chicago started pushing the puck hard into the Colorado zone. Not even two minutes into the period, Taylor Makar was caught hooking an opponent. It took only 15 seconds for the Wolves to convert on the power play with Juuso Välimäki finishing in front of Trent Miner. Eventually, the Eagles started pushing back in the latter half of the period, but could not find the back of the net.

Third period

The Wolves were down to their final 20 minutes, and they were not giving up. Despite being outshot in the third, they still managed quality shots on goal. Colorado had several splendid chances on net but couldn’t push through to extend the lead. With 7:03 left in the period, Joel Nyström came down to the goal line for a backhand shot. Somehow it found a way through to tie the game at two. Three minutes later, Ronan Seeley tossed one from the faceoff circle to take Chicago’s first lead of the contest and end it with a 3–2 victory.

“It was just a battle of lines,” said forward Tristen Nielsen. “I mean, I’ll take ownership on that second one. If I get that deep, that probably doesn’t go all the way down the ranks. I think that there’s multiple opportunities for us to get pucks in and out, and we were kind of failing at it tonight in certain instances, and that’s when they got all their momentum.

Takeaways

Colorado was not physical enough in the second, and third periods, and it cost them. There was a lack of energy to chase the puck deep into the corners as well. Had they done that later in the game, they might have prevented some goals from Chicago. Colorado brought some hard pressure on the rookie goaltender to start the game, scoring a pair in the first. But it looked as though they eased off the gas later in the game. This gave the goaltender a chance to breathe and collect himself. If a goaltender can do that, he can focus. The Eagles need to ramp up the pressure on Monday and continue to keep it going throughout all 60 minutes.

“They’re dangerous, dangerous hockey team, obviously,” said head coach Mark Letestu. “The power play got them a big goal, that’s running a top five rate right now in the playoffs. It’s very good. They get a lot of activity from their defensemen and pose a lot of problems with the man on man coverage. But six games now, we’ve played them where we know our opponent, we just kind of got to go out there next to get our game plan and get to what makes us good for a little bit longer.”

Up next

The Eagles will battle in Game Seven of the Western Conference Finals to decide who moves onto the Calder Cup Finals. They will play again on Monday night against the Chicago Wolves at 7 p.m. Mountain Time at Blue Arena in Loveland. AHLTV on FloHockey.com will stream the game.

Mark Lestetu interview June 7, 2026

Tristen Nielsen interview June 7, 2026

 

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