EAGLES NEXT GAME – Friday Feb. 8 in Olds
EAGLES NEXT HOME GAME – Saturday, Feb. 9 versus Okotoks – 7 PM
All good things must come to an end and the Canmore Eagle’s seven game home-ice winning streak certainly came to an abrupt stop last night as the visiting Drumheller Dragons shut-out the Eagles 5-0 in Alberta Junior Hockey League action before 386 fans at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
It was the Eagle’s first loss on home ice since December 11 and certainly hurts the Eagle’s aspirations of catching the Dragons for fourth-place in the Southern Division standings and securing home ice advantage for the first round of the upcoming AJHL playoffs.
The fifth-place Eagles (21-24-5) have 47 points and now trail the Dragons (25-22-4) by seven points for fourth-place. The Eagles still have a game in hand on the Dragons and will meet Drumheller two more times before the regular season ends on March 1. It was the Dragon’s first victory over Canmore in four attempts this season.
The Eagles, who played last night’s game without defencemen Alex Barnes and Johnny Stevens and forwards Nils Moser, Steven Phee and Alex Bechtold, have now lost three straight games and have been outshot 107-63 in the process.
“We didn’t play the mental game we needed to play,” said Eagle’s Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne. “We’re chasing them for home-ice advantage, we made too many stupid mistakes, and gave them all their offence. We were not nearly sharp enough for where we need to be at this point in the season. It’s not acceptable and will be addressed before we play again this weekend.”
On the positive side, Canmore still holds down fifth spot in the Southern Division standings – five points up on the six-place Calgary Mustangs, and six points ahead of the seventh-place Olds Grizzlys.
Canmore’s next action will be in Olds on Friday night (Feb. 8) before returning to Canmore for a Saturday night (Feb. 9) home game against the Okotoks Oilers.