PHOTO: Jonas Gordon (centre) is congratulated by his team-mates after scoring his first AJHL goal during Tuesday night's 6-3 victory over the Calgary Canucks. – Photo courtesy of Pam Doyle.
UPCOMING GAMES
Canmore at Fort McMurray – Friday, Nov. 13
Canmore at Calgary Mustangs – Sunday, Nov. 15
Four veteran Eagle players combined for 15 points to lead the Canmore Eagles to a 6-3 victory over the visiting Calgary Canucks in Alberta Junior Hockey League action on Tuesday night at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
The victory, before a crowd of 471, improves the Eagles overall record to 13-7-2, while the Canucks saw their record drop to 7-16-1.
Second-year forward Logan Ferguson had a five-point night (2 goals and 3 assists), while Brett Radford (2 goals and 2 assists) and Lane Olson (4 assists) each contributed four points and Matt Forchuk recorded a pair of assists. Rookie defenceman Jonas Gordon and rookie forward Daylin Marchi also recorded their first ever AJHL goals to round out the Eagle scoring.
Rookie goaltender Ryan Bontorin, the current AJHL “Goaltender of the Week”, continued his strong play stopping 30 of the 33 Canuck shots to improve his record to 7-3-1. Canmore outshot the Canucks by a 42-33 margin.
The offensive outburst by the Eagles might have been much larger had Canmore Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne not given his rookie players extra playing time once his club had established a 4-0 lead early in the second period.
“Our veterans obviously had a great game and that in turn gave us the opportunity to give our rookies a lot more playing time as the game progressed,” said Milne, whose club has picked up nine out of a possible 10 points in the AJHL Southern Division standings during their past five games. “We had our rookies killing penalties and out on the powerplay throughout the last two periods and this game experience will hopefully pay off for them as the season progresses. It also gave us the opportunity to give some of our veterans some rest. We have a big game coming up in Fort McMurray on Friday night, so hopefully our big guns will be rested and ready to go.”
NOTEBOOK: With his two assists last night, Matt Forchuk is now the undisputed leading scorer in the AJHL with 32 points in 22 games. . . Linemates Lane Olson is in second-place with 30 points, and Logan Ferguson is in 7th-place with 28 points. . . The Eagles have now won four straight games for the first time since January 2014.
