Banff brings out Eagles’ best once again

The Canmore Eagles made the first of two sojourns into Banff for this Alberta Junior Hockey League season and gave a sellout crowd inside the Fenlands Recreation Centre plenty to celebrate once again.

It was another fast-paced, hard-hitting clash that entertained the 800-plus fans who would go home happy as Canmore prevailed 4-3 over the visiting Grande Prairie Storm.

Cohen Daoust scored twice to raise his season total to a league second best 14 goals, while Alex Scheiwiller (6-5/3.28/.908) made 36 saves, including a full body stretch in the final 10 seconds to deny a pair of crashing Storm players, who were whacking at the puck, their chances to tie the game.

Canmore (9-6-1-0) has won three consecutive games – and is 4-0-1-0 on home ice – to stay one point behind the South Division leading Calgary Canucks (10-6-0-0).

Grande Prairie (7-8-0-1), fourth in the North Division, was stinging after a 4-1 loss to the Canucks in Calgary on Tuesday and looked desperate to make life miserable for Canmore, although it would be the home team that would strike first in a game in which power plays dominated.

Early in the first period, Jonathan Gomez had his breakaway attempt thwarted by a hook that led to the first power play of the game. It took just 19 seconds for the Eagles to capitalize with the man advantage against a team that had served up the least number of power plays (45 entering the game), least goals allowed (6) and best penalty-kill percentage (86.7%). Daoust certainly didn’t care about those numbers as he whipped in a loose puck while standing unguarded off the right post at 6:19.

At the other end of the spectrum is the Storm’s power play, operating at a paltry 15.6% entering the game, but it didn’t stop the visitors from scoring just six seconds into their first man-advantage situation for just their 10th power-play goal in 16 games. Max Leduc (4th goal of the season) wired a shot from the high slot, shoelace high and inside the left post at 12:08.

Eagle rookie defenceman Berkley Kufflick had to the leave the game with 5½ minutes left in the first period when he was struck in nose by a deflected puck. He would return for the second period, wearing a cage and sporting the beginnings of two black eyes.

Cole Kronewitt gave the visitors the lead at 1:10 of the second period when he fished the puck out of a crowd in front of goal and wired into the bottom left corner for his first AJHL goal.

The Eagles were rewarded with a straight 5-on-3 soon after the Storm went ahead and it took just 18 seconds for Daoust to rifle in a shot from almost the same spot in front of goal as he scored at the other end of the ice. The goal, coming at 4:51, seemed to ignite the fans and the team.

Another Canmore rookie, Easton Milne, would put the Eagles on top at 6:34 with his fifth goal in three games. He now has six points (5G-1A) in four games after not registering any points in his first nine games this season.

It would be Grande Prairie’s turn to capitalize for a second time on the power play when Brandon De Haas (7) ripped a high, hard shot just under the crossbar at 13:32, sending the teams to the second break tied 3-3.

Aidan Tkachuk would score the Eagles’ third power-play goal of the game at 15:11 of the third period after the Storm were dinged for too many men on the ice while trying to affect a lacrosse-style line chance. The big forward fired home the game winner from the slot area, putting the puck up and over the netminder.

Shots on goal were 39-30 in favour of Grande Prairie. Leland Gill (6-5/2.51/.917) was in goal for Grande Prairie.

On the power play, Canmore finished 3-for-6 while Grande Prairie went 2-for-4.

The Eagles will be back at the Canmore Recreation Centre on Friday, Nov. 7 to host the Fort McMurray Oil Barons. Game time is 7 p.m.

OVERTIME: The Eagles homestand continues next weekend with games against the Devon Xtreme on Friday, Nov. 14 and the Whitecourt Wolverines on Saturday, Nov. 15. … Canmore returns to Banff on Tuesday, Feb. 3 to take on the Olds Grizzlys. … 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.