Eagles falls apart in critical game 6

[Greg_Di 1,024]

It was a nightmare end to Roger Eagles in what is now his final game in his debut VHLE season.

His team, Rome Gladiators, was down 3-2 in the series heading into game 6. 1st and 2nd period were a pretty close affair. In the first the game was tied 1-1 and in the 2nd period the Gladiators went down 3-2. Things were still going OK and there was hope.

Then in the final period, Roger had his worst game of his career all in the span of 20 minutes. Bratislava pulled out all the stops and put up an impressive 22 shots in the final period. This lead to 4 goals going in and Bratislava winning the game 7-2 and the series 4-2. It was a tough way to go out especially in a draft year but Roger did has some good stints throughout the series. It was just an unfortunate way to end things.

 

" I don't know what to say, still shocked to be honest. We just fell apart in the final period" Roger says " We gave it our all but I think we just ran out of steam. I can't blame the team for those 4 goals, I think that blame falls squarely on me. It was a tough series and unfortunately it just wasn't meant to be. Will this effect my draft stock? Who knows but man if a scout was scouting me out for the first time even in that game, I definitely wouldn't pick me early"

 

Roger finished the playoffs with a 2-3-1 record, a .909 save percentage and a 3.46 goals against average. In order to be an elite goalie those numbers have to be much better in the playoffs.

 

"Truth be told the regular season doesn't really count, its the playoffs that matter and I was not able to deliver" Roger continued "Its a hard lesson learned for the future and I will grow as a player because of this. I don't know what the future holds but even though with this defeat, I am still excited with what's to come. I most likely will be back in the VHLE next season and looking forward to redeeming myself. I am not sure if that will be with Rome or some other team but I don't think my VHLE story ends here"

 

Roger is expected to fly to his home country in Poland to continue training at the Eagles facilities up until the VHL Draft. He will continue to hone his skills as he awaits the next steps of his career. It is highly possible Roger will be going through 2 drafts. 1 for the VHL to see where he will play in the upcoming future and the 2nd draft for the VHLE to see where he might potentially play next season if not called up to the VHL immediately.

 

"I have always said I would prefer to play another season in the VHLE but I have also said that if whatever VHL team drafts me, needs to to jump in right away then I am OK with that as well" Roger continued "The season is still on-going so I have not had any discussion with potential teams that may want to draft me but I am sure those will come over the next few weeks. The draft is still quite a while away and that gives me time to continue working on my game and work on any flaws that I noticed during this playoff run"