Spud Kings rally again to beat Pueblo and clinch a spot in the Mountain Division finals
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IDAHO FALLS – The old sport cliché that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, has been embraced by the Spud Kings.
Maybe not officially like a Ted Lasso ‘Believe’ sign, but close enough.
Playing a spirited best-of-5 playoff series against Pueblo, Idaho Falls trailed in four of the five games.
The Spud Kings came back to win two of those games, and rallied to force an overtime in another, but it was Thursday’s deciding Game 5 that arguably proved the most challenging considering what was at stake in the must-win matchup.
Down 1-0 in the first period, the Spud Kings tied it on a second-period goal by Max Von Klinggraeft. DJ MacLeish followed with a goal at 16:36 to give Idaho Falls the 2-1 lead.
That’s how it ended as goalie Charlie Durkin did the rest, stopping 25 of 26 shots and everything the Bulls could muster in the second and third periods.
With the win, the top-seeded Spud Kings advance to the Mountain Division finals where they’ll face No. 2 seed and nemesis Ogden in a best-of-5 series beginning Monday at Mountain America Center.
“I didn’t have a doubt in my mind with this group of boys,” MacLeish said of the team’s penchant for playing from behind. “I knew from the drop of the puck we were going to come out flying. We had a little breakdown at first, but we came out in the second period and third period and we were unstoppable.”
The Bulls led 1-0 after one period and had 15 shots on goal. Trevor Stewart found the net at 9:23 for his fourth goal of the playoffs. The Spud Kings had just eight shots on goal in the first.
“We were feeling good,” assistant coach Joey Strada said about how the series played out after facing two must-win games. The Spud Kings took care of business Tuesday at Pueblo in Game 4 with a 4-0 shutout, but still needed to carry that momentum back to Idaho Falls for Thursday’s game.
“We treated it as another game,” Strada said. “We knew the pressure and how important it was … we just fought through it. The boys were dialed in.”
After the slow start, the Spud Kings had 30 shots on goal over the second and third periods.
“With this team, everyone is always going, so it’s a big factor and our confidence level was high for this game,” MacLeish said, noting that between the first and second periods coach Anthony Bohn told the team that everyone needed to pick it up and play at a championship level.
“We took it to heart,” MacLeish said.
Durkin said the home-ice advantage always plays a role in the team’s success and that was no different during the playoff series.
“When we’re here and we have 4,000 people cheering for us it’s pretty easy to get us going.”
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