Soaring Eagles seek second
Soo Eagles are on a mission.
With five games to play in the 2014-2015 North American Hockey League regular season, the Eagles are in sole possession of second place in the six-team North Division.
“We want to finish second, that is our immediate goal,” Eagles coach-general manager Bruno Bragagnolo said evenly.
With a record of 9-2-1 over their last dozen games, the Eagles are three points ahead of the third-place Keystone Ice Miners in the battle for home-ice advantage in the first round of the NAHL playoffs.
“We’re playing really well right now,” Bragagnolo said of the Eagles, who have 62 points from a record of 30-23-2. “The guys are doing all the little things well.”
Keystone, which also has five games to play, has 59 points from a record of 27-23-5. The Eagles took four of six points from the Ice Miners last weekend.
The Eagles head to Johnstown for three games against the Tomahawks this weekend. The Soo squad will then close out the regular season with a pair of home games against the Michigan Warriors on March 27-28.
“These are all like playoff games now,” noted Bragagnolo. “Actually, it’s been a playoff-like atmosphere for the last month or so.”
From goaltenders Chad Catt and Jack Berry to top defencemen Pat Gazzillo and Michael Caruso to consistent forwards Trevor Cope, Brad Pung, Chase Matson, Raymond Brice, Denver Pierce and Leo Lumm, the Eagles have played as well as any team in the 24-member NAHL over the past six weeks.
The veteran Pung said the Eagles seem to be peaking at a good time.
“It’s like we knew that it was a matter of time before we got hot. We are playing some of our best hockey at a good time,” said Pung, a last-year junior who has scored a career-high 17 goals thus far this season. “We are a team that works hard and is well-prepared to play.”
Brice, a fast-skating, shutdown-style forward who is an NAHL rookie, said the character and closeness of the Eagles as a team is evident.
“Even when we were struggling as a team we stayed positive and focused,” said Brice, who is one of the Eagles top rookies. “It’s starting to come together for us.”