Photo – Jordan Revie had the game winning goal, and an assist, to lead the Eagles to a 5-3 victory over Lloydminster on Saturday night. (photo courtesy of Julie Wilson)
The Canmore Eagles wrapped up the 2013 portion of their Alberta Junior Hockey League schedule on a winning note Saturday night as they downed the visiting Lloydminster Bobcats 5-3 before 468 fans at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
The victory helped take some of the sting away from Friday night’s heart-breaking 3-2 overtime shoot-out loss to the Camrose Kodiaks and allowed the Eagles to claim three out of a possible four points over the weekend.
With the three points earned, Canmore now occupies fourth-place in the AJHL Southern Division standings with a record of 21-15-3 and 45 points. The surprising Eagles are now just six points back of the first-place Brooks Bandits.
The victory also improves Canmore's home record to an impressive 15-4-1 and the Eagles have earned at least one point in the standings in 12 of their last 13 home games.
In Saturday’s victory over Lloydminster, the Eagles received goals from five different players including Trey Phillips (16), Lane Olson (3), Kurt Hildebrand (4), Jordan Revie (12) and a highlight-reel insurance goal from Joe Serpico (10).
Canmore rookie netminder Ryan Ferguson stopped 33 of the 36 Bobcat shots to improve his record to 14-7-2. Canmore was outshot 36-25 on the night.
“We certainly didn’t play our best game of the season, but we found a way to win and good teams do that,” said Eagle’s Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne of Saturday’s victory. ‘We have accomplished a lot during our first 39 games of the season. Everyone is playing well and making a contribution in one way of another. We had five different goal scorers tonight and that tells you something about the make-up of this team. It’s a team game and we have a good team.”
“I hope the players have a great Christmas holiday and get the opportunity to get some rest and get healthy again. We have 21 games left on the schedule and it looks like it’s going to be dog-fight within our division to see who ends up where in the standings. We are playing very well at home, so our goal will be to move up in the standings as much as possible and secure home-ice advantage for the playoffs. It should be fun.”
The Eagles will open the 2014 portion of their AJHL schedule with a home game on Friday, January 3 against the Drumheller Dragons.
NOTEBOOK – Special thanks to Calgary Flames PA announcer “Beesley” for coming out to Canmore to perform the PA duties for the Eagles during last night’s Bobcat-Eagles game. This is the third straight year that Beesley has volunteered to do this for the Eagle franchise. . .For the first time ever, the Eagles introduced a starting lineup consisting of five Canmore born players. Taking the opening faceoff for the Eagles last night were defenceman John Stevens and Jeremy Gordon, plus forwards Simon Philp, Luke Simpson and Captain Nils Moser. The Eagles also have Canmore born Kyle Pauls and Roman Melzer in their lineup, but only five players can start. . . Since coming to Canmore from the Calgary Mustangs in a trade on November 1, Joe Serpico has 17 points in 19 games as an Eagle. . . The Eagles have just nine home games remaining.