Posted Tuesday, Jan. 19 3:21pm

ROSEMONT, ILL -- The Quad City Ice Eagle Bantam hockey team participated in the Chicago Extravaganza tournament, held this past week-end at various rinks in the Chicago area. The Eagle failed to qualify for the semi-finals in winning one of their three games. The Eagles' bracket featured teams from Colorado Springs, Toronto, Livingston Michigan, as well as teams from Stoughton and Kenosha in Wisconsin. Game summaries follow.

The Eagles came out flying in their first game against Colorado Springs, jumping out to a 4-goal lead. John Carr knocked in a rebound to get the scoring started. Soon after, the "BMW" line (Busch-Moon-Warta) really shifted into high gear, and goals by Josh Moon and Dave Warta seemed to have put the game out of reach. Adam Oppendike's second period goal pushed the lead to 4-0 after two periods. However, the Colorado team came out in the third period, and really took it to the Eagles, outshooting them by a wide margin, and eventually cutting the lead to one goal at 5-4. Fortunately, for Quad Cities, Colorado ran out of time, and the Eagles escaped with the one-goal triumph, with David Warta's second goal of the game proving to be the winning margin.

The second game of the tournament was played Saturday morning at the Edge Rink in Bensenville, with the Kenosha Komets providing the competition. Both Kenosha and the Eagles had played in the Thanksgiving tournament at Seven Bridges, but were in different brackets and did not play each other in that tournament. In the game Saturday, the Komets came out on fire, outshooting the Eagles by a wide margin in taking a 1-0 lead after one period. The Eagles were misfiring on their passing, and the aggressive Komets did a great job of forechecking and breaking up Eagle rushes in the neutral zone. A goal in the final minute of the second period increased the Kenosha lead to 2-0, and were it not for some unbelievable saves by Eagle goalie Brandon Kruse, the score would have been much worse. Kenosha completed its domination of the Eagles in the third period, adding a third marker, and holding the Eagles without a single shot on goal for the third period. The closest the Eagles came to scoring was late in the game when Josh Moon outfought the defenseman and moved in alone, but his hard shot was just outside the right post. The final shots on goal told the story: Kenosha, 31 and the Eagles, only 5. The loss evened their tournament record at 1-1, and meant that they would have to win the Saturday night matchup against Stoughton.

The third game of the tournament was scheduled for Saturday night at Addison. Both teams knew the winner would advance and the loser head for home. Stoughton took the lead when an attempted clearing pass by the QC defense came off the back board and deflected right in front of the net, and Goalie Kruse had no chance. Outshot early, the Eagles bounced back to make the period competitive, and tied the score when Dave Warta intercepted a pass at the Stoughton blue line and went in and scored. The second period was a good period, with both teams having chances, but Stoughton took the lead with less than a minute to play in the second. The third period saw Stoughton add two more goals to take a 4-1 lead. With about three minutes to go, Stoughton was called for a penalty. Coach Moon, knowing he needed goals fast, pulled Kruse for an extra skater, and the Eagles maintained a 6-4 advantage for the full two minutes, but could not score.

After the game, Coach Jerry Moon praised his team for their effort, noting they simply got beat by a better team. With the one win and two losses in this tournament, the Eagles' season record moves to 17-14-0. They get back to action this Saturday with two home games against Ames.