PHOTO – Canmore Eagle Head Coach and GM Andrew Milne collected his 27th victory of the season last night as the Eagles downed Drumheller 3-2. (photo courtesy of Julie Wilson)
NEXT HOME GAME – SAT. JAN. 25 – SHERWOOD PARK – 7 PM
The Canmore Eagles extended their Alberta Junior Hockey League winning streak to five games last night as they jumped out to an early 3-0 first period lead and hung on for a nail-biting 3-2 victory over the visiting Drumheller Dragons. The game was played before 421 fans at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
The victory improves the Eagle’s regular season record to 27-17-3 and moves the team into a second-place tie with both the Dragons and Okotoks Oilers in the AJHL Southern Division standings with 57 points.
Brett Radford (3rd), Austen Hebert (5th) and Bryan Arneson (10th) put the Eagles ahead before the game was 12 minutes old and then Eagle’s rookie netminder Ryan Ferguson held the fort for the remainder of the game stopping 29 of 31 Drumheller shots to improve his record to 19-8-2. Ferguson was also named the Eagle’s “Star of the Game” for the 10th time this season.
The 27 victories by the Eagles this year also represents a new regular season high for victories by Eagle’s Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne during his six year tenure in Canmore.
“That was truly a team effort,” said Milne, whose club is now an impressive 18-4-1 on home ice. “I can’t single out any one player because they all did their jobs tonight. Everyone stuck to the game plan, no one panicked when the Dragons came at us with everything they had in the third period. We’ve won a lot of one goal hockey games this year, so the boys are showing a lot of composure on the ice. We are obviously playing extremely well at home this season and securing home ice advantage for at least the first-round of the playoffs is our priority right now. Every game is extremely important towards that cause.”
The Eagles will look to extend their winning streak to six games tonight (Sat. Jan. 25) when they host the visiting Sherwood Park Crusaders (23-22-2) at the Canmore Recreation Centre. Game time is 7 PM.
In their only meeting this season, the Crusaders defeated the Eagles 7-5 in Sherwood Park on Dec. 14.
NOTEBOOK: Sherwood Park players Nicholas Jones (59 pts in 39 games) and Sean MacTavish (59 points in 47 games) are currently tied for second-place in the AJHL scoring parade. Jones had a six-point night against the Eagles in their game on Dec. 14. . . With an assist last night, Eagle defenceman Trey Phillips now has at least a point in his last 9 games. Phillips leads the AJHL in scoring by a d-man with 49 points and currently sits in 8th-place overall in the AJHL scoring parade. . .Eagle forward Connor Wilson also picked up an assist last night to lead the entire AJHL in assists with 36.