Eagles crash on weekend road trip

The Canmore Eagles lost all three games of a northern road trip.

Canmore had a chance to take over top spot in the Alberta Junior Hockey League South, but instead found themselves grounded and now in the chasing pack.

Canmore headed north to take on the division rival Camrose Kodiaks and further along the Bonnyville Pontiacs and Lloydminster Bobcats. Unable to score past the midpoint of any of the three contests, the Eagles lost 6-3 to the Kodiaks on Friday (Oct. 17), 4-2 to the Pontiacs on Saturday (Oct. 18) and 3-2 to the Bobcats on Sunday (Oct. 19).

It looks like it’s going to be a four-team battle for top spot this season. Canmore has won all three of its home games and overall is 6-6-0-0 and in fourth place in the South with 12 points, two points behind the division co-leaders Calgary Canucks (7-3-0-0) and Drumheller Dragons (6-4-0-0).

Third-place Camrose (6-5-0-0) will be in Canmore for two contests this coming Friday and Saturday, Oct. 24-25 at the Canmore Recreation Centre, with both games beginning at 7 p.m. The Eagles have won all three of their home games.

The top two power plays – both operating at better than 35 per cent – were on display in this high-scoring clash in Camrose.

Canmore gave up two goals in the opening 12 minutes. The first came on the power play – the third for the Kodiaks in the opening eight minutes – off a long shot by Keegan Beagle (1) at 9:48 followed by A.J. Schaaf (6) at 11:42

Canmore’s answers came from Bryson Insinger (6) at 12:27 followed by a power-play goal – on the Eagle’s first man-advantage – from Hudson Landmark (2) just 18 seconds later.

There was still more scoring in the first period. A second power-play goal of the period came from the Kodiaks’ Tucker Tullikopf (6) at 17:28.

The Eagles would tie this contest again at 3:28 of the second period. Will Lutic fired a shot wide right of the Camrose goal but the puck would bounce back out in front on the left side and onto the stick of the hard-charging Owen Mastroianni (3) who tapped it into the open goal.

Camrose took its third lead of the hockey game on a shorthanded strike by Liam Payne (3) at 16:36 and Payne (4) would add a second goal at 18:14. The Kodiaks never looked back.

In the third period, Bowen Grycan (6), who already had two assists, made it a three-goal lead at 2:52.

Tullikopf finished the night with three assists.

Cohen Daoust had his nine-game scoring streak (10 goals) and points streak (16 points) come to an end, although he came close twice in the third period hitting first the right post then the left post.

Camrose outshot Canmore 31-21 with Spencer Michnik in goal for the Kodiaks and Alex Scheiwiller in goal for the Eagles.

On the power play, Camrose finished 2-for-5 to keep its 40 per cent average intact, which includes a league-leading 18 man-advantage goals. Canmore finished 1-for-6 and second best in the league at 14 goals and 32.5 per cent. Both teams still had two more games to play over the weekend, and like the Eagles, the Kodiaks would lose both of those games.

The ice was ready for this fixture just 24 hours after the Pontiacs had to suspend their Friday game against the Devon Xtreme due to a busted pipe. A deflected shot from Bonyville’s Maxim Shushkov broke a sprinkler pipe high above the Xtreme goal in the 14th minute of the first period and caused a flood forcing the game to be abandoned.

Canmore and Bonnyville exchanged goals in an unenergetic opening two periods of Saturday’s contest. It looked like the teams were skating on a soft surface.

Canmore did open the scoring 66 seconds into Saturday’s contest. Landmark (3), in the high slot, deflected a Daoust shot into the unguarded right side of the goal.

A defensive zone miscue by Canmore allowed Bonnyville’s Grayson Niehaus (2) to score off a short 2-on-1 at 10:07.

Canmore would retake the lead at 7:12 of the second period. Liam Magnuson (2) joined the rush, stole the puck away from two defenders and while falling backwards wired a shot into the goal. Magnuson scored just one goal in 48 games last season and now has two goals in 11 games this season.

Bonnyville wouldn’t let Canmore enjoy having its second lead for too long. Rylan Emigh (2) was fed an inch-perfect pass by Christophe Lussier and pulled the trigger right at the top of the crease for the tying goal at 9:24.

Bonnyville then awoke from this dozy game in the third period and scored two goals in 21 seconds. Ben Constantino (4) scored off his own rebound on a 2-on-1 rush at 9:29 followed by Niehaus (3) getting his second of the game when he found space and time for a scoring shot in the low slot at 9:50.

Even the Eagles’ power play was sluggish going 0-for-7. Bonnyville was 0-for-3.

Shots were 23 apiece with Hudson Sedo in goal for the Eagles and Nathan Salisbury in goal for the Pontiacs.

The Canmore Eagles let the Bobcats steal a win after taking a 2-0 lead in the opening 14 minutes.

John Szabo (4) opened the scoring, grabbing a rebound off the right pad of Bobcat goaltender Matthew Kondro and stuffing it into the net.

Tavynn Hamilton made it 2-0 on the power play at 13:52 when he redirected a cross-crease, backhand pass from Bryson Insinger.

The Bobcats would come back to tie this game. Just 26 seconds after the Eagles took a two-goal lead, Jadon Iyogun (5) was sent in alone on Eagles netminder Alex Scheiwiller and postered a quick wrist shot over the right shoulder. Then Morgan Hackman (2) placed a shot just inside the far post from inside the left-wing face-off dot at 17:55.

Alessio Nardelli (1) gave Lloydminster the lead just 48 seconds into the middle frame, charging to the net and pushing home a loose puck for a power-play goal.

Lloydminster outshot Canmore 41-32.

On the power play, both teams went 1-for-5.

OVERTIME: Last season away from Canmore, the Eagles had just eight regulation-time losses in 27 games, with another three defeats in overtime and one shootout setback. … Canmore did have a six-game losing streak – two of those in overtime – last season, four on the road and two at home from Nov. 2 through Nov. 16, although the Eagles were 11-2-1-0 at the start of that streak. … An oddity in this year’s AJHL schedule saw the Grande Prairie Storm travel to Fort McMurray for three games over the weekend. The hometown Oil Barons won all three games. … All AJHL games can be viewed with a flohockey.tv subscription. … The Canmore Eagles are in need of more volunteers to help with game day experiences, email info@canmoreeagles.com for more information on opportunities and game-day perks that come with being part of the Game Day Crew.