Dragons slayer

Dragons slayer
Hockey Day in Canada came to Canmore this past week (Jan. 15-18), with the television stars of Sportsnet’s Hockey Night in Canada and former NHL players enjoining a whole community to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
After a three-day lead-up that featured hockey clinics, school visits for the Stanley Cup, Sportsnet hosts trying out various activities, a concert and a grand banquet it was time for Saturday’s main event. Thousands of hockey fans from outside the community, joined hometown hockey players and fans in a frigid fan zone for a skate-on-the-pond, ball hockey tournaments, a chance to win prizes at various sponsor booths and a cup of much-needed Tim Hortons hot chocolate. This lively event was all on display for a national television audience that also got to admire the breathtaking scenery that surrounds this former coal mining town.
Inside the Canmore Recreation Centre, the main arena featured the Hockey Day in Canada stage from which the national broadcast for a day of NHL games was hosted, and the fans packed it to the rafters to take in the media celebrities, as well as a U18 Alberta Elite Hockey League game, a USports women’s clash and capping it off another edition of one of the most entertaining rivalries in the Alberta Junior Hockey League with the Drumheller Dragons taking on the Canmore Eagles.
For 20 minutes, it looked like the Canmore players were still awestruck from being part of the festivities: a key part in helping out at clinics, school functions, broadcast interview requests and serving as a key source of manual labour for the setup and take down of various stages.  Drumheller jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
That all changed in period two as the Eagles realized they were now the main event and put in a Hockey Night in Canada three stars performance for a thrilling 6-2 victory that put the vast majority of the 1,140 fans into a late-night party mood.
The result vaulted Canmore back into top spot in the league with 53 points on 24 wins, nine regulation-time losses, four overtime losses and one shootout defeat.
Drumheller took the lead on a power-play goal by Ayden Peters (13th goal of the season) at 5:46 followed by a shorthanded goal by Luca Dufour (5) in the back half of the period.
Bryson Insinger, coming off a three-assist performance in the Eagles previous game, a 6-2 win over the Devon Xtreme Jan. 18, scored just his second goal of the season to begin the rally.
The last time these two teams met at the Canmore Recreation Centre was 15 days prior when the Eagles routed the Dragons 7-2, scoring six power-play goal in the victory. On Saturday, the power play was again key with Ethan Look (16) scoring the first of three man-advantage goals in this game to tie the game at 7:12 of the second period.
The Eagles would take the lead on a goal by Nathan MacPherson-Ridgewell (4) before the period ended.
Owen Jones (16) and then Casey Black (5), both came on the power play as Canmore pulled away in the first half of the third period. Kayden Rawji (13) added a 200-foot, empty net goal with 100 seconds remaining.
In this wildly entertaining clash, Canmore outshot Drumheller 41-37 with Alex Scheiwiller in goal for the Eagles and Sean Cootes tending the Dragons net.
Canmore went 3-for-9 on the power play while Drumheller was 1-for-5, with each team scoring while shorthanded. The Eagles goal was Rawji’s empty net marker.
It’s getting quite heated at the top of the overall league standings and for the South Division lead. Canmore is one-point better than the North Division leading Whitecourt Wolverines (24-9-2-2) and the second-best team in the South, the Calgary Canucks (24-10-2-2). All three are looking over their shoulders at the South’s third place club, the Camrose Kodiaks (23-8-2-2) at 50 points, who have three games in hand on both Canmore and Calgary and two on Whitecourt. The Kodiaks are 9-0-1-0 in December and January.
Drumheller (19-16-2-0) holds fourth place in the South but they have to start worrying about the fifth-place Drayton Valley Thunder (15-14-4-3), who are now just three points out of that final playoff spot.
The Eagles have won three of four meetings with the Dragons this season, winning all three games played at the Canmore Recreation Centre, with two more regular-season clashes left to play at the Drumheller Memorial Arena Feb. 7 and 15.
Next up for Canmore is a home doubleheader on Friday, Jan. 24 against Whitecourt and Saturday, Jan. 25 versus Devon. Game times at the Canmore Recreation Centre are 7 p.m.
The notebook
Canmore captain Rhett Dekowny and newly arrived Will Lutic were named as two of the stars of the week for Jan. 6-12.
Dekowny had three goals and three assists in two victories that week. The 2004-born forward was awarded a pair of assists via video review to finish with one goal and three assists in a 6-2 win over the Lloydminster Bobcats and followed it up with a two-goal performance the following day against Devon, another 6-2 Eagles victory.
Lutic was newly arrived that weekend, which also featured a game in Camrose to begin the weekend and the 17-year-old forward from St. Albert recorded three goals and one assist.
Dekowny is fifth in league scoring with an assist in the win over Drumheller giving him 39 points (17G-22A), eclipsing his last year’s total of 38 points. The Swift Current, Sask. native has recorded 13 points (6G-7A) in six January games, being held off the scoresheet in just one game.
Rawji, who was much in demand during Hockey Day in Canada festivities, for interviews and photo sessions, picked up a goal and assist in Saturday’s win and is now tied for sixth in league scoring with 37 points (13G-24A). The Edmonton native leads the league with 16 power-play points (5G-11A).
Jones, with his Saturday goal, gives Canmore three players in the top 10 at eighth with 36 points (16G-20A).
Look has goals in four consecutive games with his two goals in the win over Drumheller moving him to 31 points (17G-14A). (Editor’s note: Look’s second goal was originally awarded to Casey Black which is reflected on the official game sheet but not on the internet game summary).
Black continues his torrid scoring pace for Canmore. The Eagles defenceman, who returned to the club at the end of November improved to 17 points (5G-12A) in 14 games with a goal and two-assist performance on Saturday. He has been held off the scoresheet just once this season. The Calgary native is seventh in scoring among defenceman despite playing less than half the games of most of his counterparts on that list.
Insinger’s goal was his first in 25 games and gives him 12 points (2G-10A) in 33 games this season, with four points (1G-3A) in his last two games.
Defenceman Jaren Brinson had his second two-assist game of the season on Saturday and has six points in 19 games, missing most of November and all of December with an injury. The Airdrie native is still looking for his first goal.
Scheiwiller improved to 16-6-3 on the season with an AJHL fourth-best 2.39 goals-against average and .922 save percentage.
Canmore has scored nine power plays in 21 chances in its last two games against Drumheller and is second overall in the league at 20.3 per after three more goals on Saturday. The Eagles are tied with the Dragons (third at 19.9 per cent) for the most power play goals at 35.
The shorthanded goals by each team on Saturday took Canmore to three goals and Drumheller to four goals. Each team has given up six shorthanded goals tied with the Olds Grizzlys for the most allowed.
EAGLES NEST: Canmore Eagles tickets are available at canmoreeagles.ca/tickets. … If you can’t attend in person, you can watch Eagles’ games as well as the rest of the AJHL online, along with much more live and on demand hockey, through a FloSports subscription available at flohockey.tv.
Russ Ullyot