PHOTO – Canmore’s Lane Olson scores his 12th goal of the season as Brett Radford (centre) and Matt Forchuk (left) look on during Canmore’s 6-1 victory over the Calgary Mustangs on Saturday night. (photo courtesy of Pam Doyle)
NEXT HOME GAME: Tuesday, Dec. 8 – Drumheller at Canmore (to be played in Banff)
Eagle defenceman Griffin Mumby scored his first two goals of the season and added an assist as the Canmore Eagles downed the visiting Calgary Mustangs 6-1 in Alberta Junior Hockey League action Saturday night at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
The victory, before a crowd of 445, snapped a three-game home losing streak for the Eagles and improved their regular season record to 16-10-2. Canmore now sits in a third-place tie in the AJHL Southern Division standings with the Okotoks Oilers with 34 points.
Canmore also received three-point performances from forwards Matt Forchuk and Lane Olson who both recorded a goal and two assists, while Jake Ashton (4th) and Brett Radford (12th) rounded out the Eagle scoring.
Ryan Gilchrist started in net for Canmore and stopped 13 of 14 Mustang shots in the first period before tweaking his groin. Ryan Bontorin replaced Gilchrist to start the second period and stopped all 17 Mustang shots fired his way to pick up the win and improve his record to 8-5-1. The Eagles outshot the Mustangs 47-31 in the game.
“We responded with a much better effort tonight,” said Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne, whose club posted a 6-3 record during the month of November. “We were physical on their back end early in the game and that set the tone. We turned pucks over with our speed. We had a few guys out of our lineup up front, so there was lots of ice time for everyone and they took advantage of that.”
Canmore’s next action will take place next Friday and Saturday (Dec. 4 & 5) when the team travels to Camrose for a pair of tough road games against the second-place Kodiaks (17-7-3).
NOTEBOOK: With his three-point performance on Saturday night, Canmore’s Matt Forchuk is once again back in first-place in the AJHL scoring parade with 43 points (18 goals and 25 assists) in just 28 games played. . . Linemates Lane Olson is now tied for 5th-place in the scoring parade with 36 points, and Logan Ferguson is tied for 8th-place with 35 points. . . .The Canmore Eagles X-mas tree lot is NOW OPEN. The lot is located at the MJ Landscaping location on Bow Valley Trail – directly across from the Georgetown Inn. The lot is open from 11-5 on Saturday and Sunday and from 4-7pm from Tuesday-Friday. The lot is closed on Monday. Customers will receive two free Eagle game tickets with every tree purchased.