Ryley Risling scored his team-leading 5th goal of the season on Tuesday night to help the Eagles defeat the visiting Drumheller Dragons 2-1 in overtime. (photo courtesy of Julie Wilson)
NEXT HOME GAME
Friday, October 3 – Sherwood Park Crusaders – 7 PM
The Canmore Eagles received power play goals from Ryley Risling and Griffin Mumby to register a 2-1 overtime victory over the Drumheller Dragons in Alberta Junior Hockey League action Tuesday night at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
After dropping both games at last weekend’s AJHL Showcase Event in Spruce Grove, the Eagles came up with one their grittiest efforts of the season against Drumheller as they evened their regular season record to 4-4. The Dragons, who have knocked the Eagles out the playoffs for the past two seasons, saw their record drop to 6-1-2.
With several Eagle starters out of the lineup battling the flu bug, and several more players suiting up despite feeling under the weather, the Eagles battled hard and sent the home town crowd of 392 home happy.
Canmore goaltender Ryan Ferguson was once again at the top of his game stopping all but one of the 32 shots that the Dragons fired his way. Canmore was outshot 32-27 on the night.
“We seem to have the ability to play well when we are faced with adversity,” said Eagle’s Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne. “We had some players in the lineup tonight that probably shouldn’t have been, but they sucked it up and played very well. I have confidence in this group of players, although at times this season, they haven’t shown their best. Drumheller is a very physical team and we pushed back when we needed to, and responded to the physical challenge. Our back end, as a group, played very well and Fergie was back to being the Fergie that we’ve come to appreciate.”
The Eagles will get a few days to rest and recover before they take on the Sherwood Park Crusaders on Friday night at the Canmore Recreation Centre. It will be the only visit of the season for the Crusaders. Game time is 7 PM.
NOTEBOOK: Mumby, who came to the Eagles this season after spending two seasons playing for the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League, was named the Eagle’s “Star of the Game”. The 18 year-old Calgary native now has three goals on the season and is enjoying a ton of ice-time on the back end. . . With five goals in just eight games, Risling has now equaled last year’s rookie goal total that he accumulated in 38 games played . . . The Eagles played last night’s game without the services of Nikolas Kosman, Kyle Craddock, Lane Olson , Brett Schimmel and lost Brett Radford during the game due to an eye injury. . . Affiliate defenceman Joshua Bishop was called up for the game.
