Dekowny keeps the Eagles flying high
The Canmore Eagles continue to top the Alberta Junior Hockey League with three more wins this past week.
Canmore (32-11-4-1) has 69 points through 48 games, five points ahead of the Calgary Canucks (30-12-2-2) in the race to top the South Division, and nine points up on the North Division-leading Whitecourt Wolverines (29-10-2-3) in the battle for No. 1 overall. The Eagles have just six games remaining to play over the final four weeks while the Canucks have eight games and the Wolverines have 10 more to play.
There is no denying, though, that the Eagles are doing the right things at the right time to keep themselves at the top. Leading the team in that heady direction is part-time captain Rhett Dekowny, who captured another individual award last week when named January’s third star for the Canadian Junior Hockey League, which encompasses all sanctioned junior A leagues across Canada.
We use ‘part-time’ because Dekowny is the captain when Canmore plays its home games while deferring to Jaren Brinson on the road. There is no disputing though whether it’s on home ice or in rinks away from Canmore, Dekowny is leading his teammates to ever greater heights.
This past week, Canmore defeated the Lloydminster Bobcats 4-2 before 1,123 fans at the Banff Fenlands Recreational Centre on Tuesday (Feb. 11), massacred the Olds Grizzlys 10-4 at the Canmore Recreation Centre on Valentine’s Day (Friday, Feb. 14) and wrapped up the week with an inspiring 4-3 victory over the Dragons at the Drumheller Memorial Arena on Saturday (Feb. 15).
Dekowny, third in league scoring with 55 points (24G-31A), would score a goal in each of those games – and also added an assist – to run his points streak to 13 games (10G-13A) with the Eagles winning 11 of those games. The 2004-born native of Swift Current, Sask. is also on a current five-game goal-scoring streak, a 12-game home-points streak and a seven-game road-points streak.
This week, Canmore hosts Olds on Friday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. and Calgary on Sunday at 2 p.m. They are part of a four-game homestand that also includes Drayton Valley Thunder on Friday, Feb. 28 and the Camrose Kodiaks on Friday, March 7, to finish up the Eagles home portion of their 2024-25 schedule. The Eagles will finish up their regular season with games in Drayton Valley on Saturday, March 8 and in Olds on Friday, March 14.
Bobcats 2 at Eagles 4
The second game played in Banff this season also attracted another over-the-top crowd in size and intensity as Canmore completed a season sweep of the North Division third-place Bobcats.
The fourth win in as many encounters was in doubt up to Dekowny’s empty net goal with 50 seconds remaining.
Lloydminster took a 1-0 lead into the first break on a shorthanded goal by Caden Steinke (9th goal of the season).
Canmore answered with three power-play goals. Tavynn Schlaht (6) and Cohen Daoust (14) scored in the final 90 seconds of the second period after Bobcat Murray Kanerva was tagged for a fighting major when he went after Eagle Nathan MacPherson-Ridgewell. Casey Black (7) made it 3-1 with less than four minutes to play in the third period during a double-minor high-sticking call to Bobcat Kate Fendelet when he clipped Haruki Morikawa.
Dekowny (22) then made it a three-goal lead in the final minute before Bobcat Ben Costantino (4) scored in the final second of the game.
Canmore outshot Lloydminster 38-27, with Alex Scheiwiller in goal for the Eagles and Kaiden Kirkwood in goal for the Bobcats.
On the power play, Canmore was 3-for-8, and Lloydminster was 0-for-4.
Grizzlys 4 at Eagles 10
It was a night for special teams and utter confusion in a penalty-filled game as Canmore reached double-digits in goals for the first time this season.
Nathan MacPherson-Ridgewell scored three power-play goals and the Eagles would finish the game with five power-play goals while Olds scored four power-play goals.
The scoresheet showed Canmore outshooting Olds 65-26, although the numbers seem rather inflated, showing the Eagles with 30 shots in the second period. There was no doubt that Grizzlys goaltender Ben Dardis was a busy man this night as his team was shorthanded 11 times while the Eagles were shorthanded six times.
The contest really got away from Olds in the final period as the Grizzlys mauled their way through this game finally running out of steam in the back half of the third period.
Canmore took a 2-0 lead in the opening frame on goals by MacPherson (9), via the power play, and Black (8).
Olds rallied back with two power-play goals in the opening 3:10 of the second period with Esteban Labelle (4) and Aiden Knutson (4) tying the game at 2-2. Seven goals were scored in the middle frame with Lutic (5), MacPherson-Ridgewell (10), again on the power play, and Daoust (15) opening up a three-goal lead for Canmore. Knutson (5), on the power play, would score his second of the period before Daoust (16) added his second of the period.
Keil Schmalz (2) would make it a two-goal deficit again when he scored on the power play 98 seconds into the third period. The Eagles though would put the game away with four consecutive goals. Schlaht (7) was followed by power-play goals by Dekowny (23) and MacPherson-Ridgewell (11). Keston Beagle then scored his first goal of the season at 18:48.
Hudson Sedo was in goal for Canmore.
On the power play, Canmore was 5-for-11 and Olds was 4-for-6.
Fourteen Canmore players recorded points in the game.
Eagles 4 at Dragons 3
There are defining games for teams during a season and maybe Saturday night in Drumheller was one of those for Canmore.
Canmore successes are well earned but there was one glaring failure the team needed to correct. That correction happened in Drumheller when the Eagles ended a seven-game, road losing streak against fellow South Division playoff squads. Canmore last won a road game against Calgary, third-place Camrose and fourth-place Drumheller back on its first road game on Sept. 14. 2024 – 3-2 over the Canucks.
Saturday’s victory is sure to be a confidence builder going into the upcoming playoffs as Canmore will have to go through two of those three teams to win a league championship.
Owen Jones (18) and Dekowny (24) scored in the first period for Canmore.
Allen Sherpa (9) would get one back for Drumheller before Adian Tkachuk (8) would score for the Eagles.
Hudson Landmark would then score his first goal as an Eagle, in his fifth game, at 8:25 of the third period to give Canmore a much needed three-goal lead. Nick McLennan (4) would get Drumheller back within two goals near the midpoint of the period. Ellis Mieyette (11) would make it a one-goal game with 54 seconds remaining.
Canmore outshot Drumheller 33-25 with Scheiwiller in goal for Canmore and Sean Cootes in goal for Drumheller.
On the power play, Canmore was 0-for-4 and Drumheller was 0-for-3.
The notebook
Canmore has won four in a row and seven in a row on home ice.
Canmore’s power play has a league-leading 51 goals with a second-best 21.4 percentage.
The Eagles penalty killing numbers took a hit in Friday’s win but has still allowed the third fewest goals at 27 and is third best at 85.2 per cent.
Jones is fourth in league scoring with 52 points (18G-34A), with the Canmore native also on a 12 home games points streak (7G-18A) and six home games assists streak (11).
Kayden Rawji (undisclosed) has missed the last four games and has slipped to 10th in AJHL scoring with 43 points (17G-26A).
Look has climbed into the top 20 in league scoring with 40 points (19G-21A).
Daoust is on a six-game points streak (5G-7A) and working in his six-point game on Feb. 28 has 18 points (6G-12A) over his last seven games. The second-year forward has 34 points (16G-18A) in 47 games played.
Casey Black is the only defenceman in the league to be averaging a point-per-game with 28 points (8G-20A) in 25 games. He is third overall in defence scoring despite playing a dozen fewer games than everyone on the list.
Will Lutic has 14 points (5G-9A) in 13 games since joining the Eagles on Jan. 10.
The Eagles’ goaltending duo continues to shine. Scheiwiller is 20-6-3-1 on the season with a 2.34 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage. Sedo is 12-5-1 with a 2.65 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
EAGLES NEST: Canmore Eagles tickets are available at canmoreeagles.ca/tickets. If you can’t attend in person, you can watch Eagles games as well as the rest of the AJHL online, along with much more live and on-demand hockey, through a FloSports subscription available at flohockey.tv.
Russ Ullyot
