Photo – Goaltender Cam Barnes stopped all 37 Calgary Canuck shots to help the Eagles down Calgary 1-0.
Canmore Eagle Head Coach and General Manager Andrew has a goaltending dilemma that every hockey coach would love to have. Two excellent goaltenders!
The Eagles received another stellar effort from their goaltender last night as veteran Cameron Barnes stopped all 37 shots as the Canmore Eagles shut-out the visiting Calgary Canucks 1-0 in Alberta Junior Hockey League action before a season low crowd of just 328 at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
It was the second straight shut-out for the Eagles, as rookie netminder Ryan Ferguson shut-out the Fort McMurray Oil Barons 4-0 on Saturday night. It was the first time the Eagles have recorded back-to-back shutouts in over a decade.
The two Eagle goalies have combined to allow just seven goals in regulation time during their past seven games. During that seven game stretch, Barnes has been named the Eagle’s “Star of the Game” on two occasions and Ferguson has claimed the honours three times.
With the victory, the Eagles improve their overall record to 19-13-2 and find themselves in fourth-place in the AJHL Southern Division standings, just five points back of the first-place Brooks Bandits.
Twenty-year old defenceman Trey Phillips was the hero for Canmore last night as he scored the only goal of the game, on the powerplay, with just under a minute to play in the third period. It was Phillip’s team leading 15th goal of the season and 31st point. Phillips, who recently accepted a scholarship from the University of Vermont, continues to be the top scoring defenceman in the entire AJHL.
“We played just well enough to win tonight, but it was certainly a closer game than I wanted,” said Milne, whose team is now an impressive 14-4 on home ice. “I think it was hard for the team to get emotionally fired up again after last Saturday’s emotional victory over the Oil Barons, but we managed to pull it off, and good teams find a way to do that. Cam Barnes was fantastic for us tonight and certainly kept us in the game. It’s a coach’s dream to have two goalies playing equally outstanding hockey.”
Canmore will now hit the road for three consecutive games with games in Spruce Grove (27-5-1) on Friday night (Dec. 13), Sherwood Park (14-18-1) on Saturday night (Dec. 14), and Olds (14-15-6) on Sunday afternoon (Dec. 15).