Most of the room had cleared.
A few players mill around back and forth between the workout area and showers, but the only player left at his locker stall is Collin Bowman. He sits still and silent, his head slumped down with a hat pulled low.
A solitary figure replaying the same sequence over and over in his mind. The weight of a night draped around his neck. Hockey is a team sport and he knows it. A single player never truly loses a game. But in this moment, it’s hard to remember that fact.
“It doesn’t get much worse. It’s on my shoulders,” Bowman says, almost at a whisper. “It’s a play I shouldn’t be making in overtime.”
With a chance to move on to the next round of the playoffs for the second straight night at home, the Colorado Eagles failed to make good on friendly ice again, losing in the most gut-wrenching fashion all season when Bowman’s turnover provided Wichita a 5-4 victory 21 seconds into overtime of Game 5 Saturday night at the Budweiser Events Center, the Thunder once more fighting off elimination.
What’s worse, the Eagles had furiously scratched their way back from a two-goal deficit in the third period, Collin’s older brother Drayson Bowman scoring the equalizing goal with just 1:27 remaining in regulation as the goaltender was pulled for an extra attacker.
Riding all the momentum and the building rocking to a deafening pitch in eager anticipation of an overtime win, expectations well-earned after Colorado had played in and won the most overtimes games in the entire ECHL during the season, Collin Bowman’s lapse in judgment spelled doom.
“It doesn’t get any worse than that. It was a bang-bang play,” he said afterward, still feeling the pain of his error. “I saw a lane through the middle and I wanted to make a pass to the center knowing the guy was there, he just flipped the stick over and got a piece of it. Unfortunately, that was kind of the end of it. He was all alone.”
Wichita forward Ryan Van Stralen had read Bowman’s intentions perfectly, jumping the passing lane for an interception that saw him bearing down on Colorado goalie Joe Cannata uncontested. Van Stralen calmly ripped into the netting for his second goal of the game.
The Thunder’s bench erupted from their seats and rushed the ice, swarming their hero, who provided them with at least one more game in their season. The crowd moaned and the Eagles took the long walk back to the dressing room.
Where Bowman would sit in thought well after the play.
“We had a lot of confidence going into overtime,” he said. “One bad play by me didn’t reflect anything on the team. That was just a bad turnover on my part.”
While Bowman may have felt like he cost his club a series-clinching victory, there were more than enough mistakes to go around for the Eagles on the night, surrendering five goals despite Wichita totaling only 17 shots on net.
Three plays in particular directly led to goals for the Thunder, one in each of the first two periods and Bowman’s final nail in overtime.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow. We felt like we really tilted the ice and had the momentum,” Eagles assistant coach Ryan Tobler said. “Just the way the night went, mistakes ended up in the back of our net. Plain and simple. We shot ourselves in the foot.”
Colorado gave up the first goal of the game for the fourth time in the series and played from behind most all the night, twice tying with goals from Ryan Harrison and Julien Nantel only to look sloppy at critical times to set up Wichita scores.
The Eagles again struggled to bury the puck, in part due to a stingy Wichita netminder in Shane Starrett, but also because the Thunder have done an excellent job of blocking shots and disrupting passing lanes, on perfect display for Van Stralen’s game winner.
Colorado also went scoreless on the power player in three games at home, finishing 0-for-14 after scoring four times on the man advantage in Games 1 and 2.
“We’ve heavily out-chanced them and we just got to keep getting pucks in and finding a way to get them in the back of the net,” Tobler said, his club firing 41 shots on frame Saturday. “We just have to find ways. We have to be better as a group of finding those second chances and making sure that they cross that line.”
The Eagles still hold a firm grip on the series up 3-2, returning to Wichita on Monday in hopes of closing it out on their third attempt. If Colorado were to lose, it would return home for Game 7 on Wednesday.
An outcome they’d prefer to avoid altogether.
“It’s seven games and we put ourselves in a good spot. We’re still up here and we’re going to regroup, go on the road and put our best foot forward,” Tobler said. “There’s no hanging your head this time of year. You learn from it. We’ve got to clean up some areas and make a couple small adjustments and we’ll be fine.”
Cris Tiller: tillerc@reporter-herald.com or twitter.com/cristiller
Thunder 5, Eagles 4 (OT)
At Budweiser Events Center
Wichita 2 2 0 1 — 5
First Period — 1. Wichita, Polei 2, 7:03. 2. Colorado, Harrison 2 (Watson, Register), 8:24. 3. Wichita, Low 1 (Thibault), 12:58.
Second Period — 4. Colorado, Nantel 2 (Barron), 3:02. 5. Wichita, MacMillan 2, 12:38 (SH). 6. Wichita, Van Stralen 2 (Stevenson, Butcher), 16:05.
Third Period — 7. Colorado, Beaudin 3 (Joly, Verpaelst), 5:50. 8. Colorado, D. Bowman 2 (Marto, Register), 18:33.
Overtime Period — 9. Wichita, Van Stralen 3, 0:21.
Shots on goal — Wichita 17, Colorado 41
Power Plays — Wichita 0/2, Colorado 0/4
Goalies (shots-saves) — Wichita: Starrett (41-37); Colorado: Cannata (17-12)