UPCOMING HOME GAMES:
Friday, December 19 – Calgary Mustangs – 7 PM
Saturday, December 20 – Grande Prairie Storm – 7 PM
The Canmore Eagles gave it a good effort but came up just a little short as they fell 3-1 to the Drumheller Dragons in Alberta Junior Hockey League action in Drumheller on Tuesday night.
With the loss, the Eagle’s overall record falls to 16-18-1, while the Dragons improved their record to 20-11-5.
The Eagles will attempt to climb back to a .500 record before the Christmas break when they host the visiting Calgary Mustangs (8-23-3) on Friday night and the Grande Prairie Storm (13-22-2) on Saturday night.
Joe Serpico (10th) had the lone Eagle goal and was named as the Eagle’s “Star of the Game”. Canmore outshot the Dragons by a 39-32 margin.
“We played a strong game tonight,” said Eagle’s Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne, whose club was missing their top scoring forward (Ryley Risling) and three top defenceman (Griffin Mumby, Nikolas Kosman and Jakob Lavoie). “They got some lucky breaks on their goals and we didn’t get any bounces when we were on offence. We had plenty of chances to score and threw a lot of pucks on their net, but it wasn’t our night for puck luck. They did a pretty good job of pressuring our defence and they were successful in forcing our young guys into making some quick decisions. But overall, I liked our effort tonight top to bottom – I just didn’t like the result.”
NOTEBOOK: Serpico now has 19 points in his last 18 games, including five goals in his past five games. . . After this weekend’s two home games, the Eagles will enjoy a 12-day Christmas break from Dec. 21 to Jan. 1. When the Eagles resume their schedule in Spruce Grove on Jan. 2, they expect to have all their starting players back in their lineup as Risling and Mumby will be back from their World Junior A Hockey Challenge and Kosman and Lavoie are scheduled to return from their long term injuries. . . At the World Junior A Challenge last night, Team Canada West defeated Team Russia 3-2 in a shootout. Up next for Canada West is a date with Canada East in the quarterfinals on Wednesday night at 6:30 pm. The game can also be seen on FASTHockey.com.