PHOTO – Canmore’s Matt Forchuk had a pair of goals last night but it wasn’t enough as the Eagles lost 3-2 to the Sherwood Park Crusaders. (Photo courtesy of Pam Doyle)
NEXT HOME GAME – Wednesday, Nov. 25 – Bonnyville at Canmore – 7 PM
For the second consecutive night against a northern division team, the Canmore Eagles had a sluggish first period and couldn’t recover as they dropped a 3-2 decision to the Sherwood Park Crusaders in Alberta Junior Hockey League action on Saturday night at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
Canmore also lost 3-2 in similar fashion to the Drayton Valley Thunder on Friday night.
The pair of home losses drops the Eagles regular season record to 15-9-2 and keeps them at 32 points in the AJHL Southern Division standings – good enough for third-place. The Eagles now trail the first-place Camrose Kodiaks by five points and are just two points up on the fourth-place Okotoks Oilers.
Matt Forchuk, the AJHL’s leading scorer with 40 points in 26 games, had a pair of goals (16 and 17th) for the Eagles while defenceman Braiden Doucette chipped in with a pair of assists.
Eagle goaltender Ryan Gilchrist played a strong game stopping 36 of the 39 Crusader shots directed his way but took the loss to see his record drop to 8-4-1. Canmore was outshot 39-30 on the night, and by a 14-5 margin in the opening 20 minutes.
“We put ourselves in a hard spot with a poor first period,” confirmed Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne. “We underestimated how hard they were going to compete and we got caught standing around watching too much. We didn't play that poorly, we just made a few bad decisions and they capitalized on them.
“Both third periods were good this weekend and both our goalies (Bontorin on Friday and Gilchrist on Saturday) did a good job. We have a few days now to get healthy and prepare for a big game against Bonny on Wednesday.”
NOTEBOOK: Logan Ferguson picked up an assist in last night’s loss to extend his point streak to an AJHL leading eight games. Ferguson has recorded 16 points in his last eight games and has now moved into fourth-place in the AJHL scoring parade. . . The Eagles picked up two more power-play goals last night and now have a league leading 36 PP goals on the season.
