Thursday, January 24, 2012 – The red-hot Canmore Eagles will be looking for a little revenge when they host the second-place Camrose Kodiaks in Alberta Junior Hockey league action at the Canmore Recreation Centre on Friday, January 25. Game time is 7 PM.
The fifth-place Eagles (19-20-5) have played the Kodiaks (27-16-3) three times this season and have lost all three games by scores of 3-2 and 5-2 in Canmore on Nov. 23 and 24, and 7-2 in Camrose on Dec.14.
All three losses came while Canmore was in the midst of a horrendous 13-game winless streak when several key Eagle players were missing due to injuries.
“We’re a much healthier hockey club right now and consequently we are playing some of our best hockey of the season,” said Eagle’s Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne, whose team has won nine of their past 10 games and are undefeated in their last five home games. “Friday’s game against Camrose will be another huge test for our hockey club. We have 16 regular season games left on our schedule and ideally we’d like to move up in the Southern Division standings and grab that fourth-place spot which secures home-ice advantage in the first-round of the playoffs.
“Camrose has certainly had our number this year, but we get three more cracks at them this year. It will be interesting to see how we measure up with them now that we’re relatively healthy again. It should be a very exciting and entertaining game to watch.”
The two teams will wrap up their six-game regular season schedule against each other with a pair of games in Camrose on the Feb.1-2 weekend.
NOTEBOOK: Canmore netminder Ty Swabb, with a record of 8-3-2, has not faced the Kodiaks this season. . .The Kodiaks are 7-3 in their last 10 games, and sport a road record of 11-9-1. . . The Eagle’s powerplay unit would be well advised to pay special attention to the Kodiak penalty killers as Camrose has scored 12 shorthanded goals this year. The Eagles, who have not scored a shorthanded goal this season, have allowed a league-leading 11 short-handed goals this year. . . The Kodiaks feature a very balanced scoring attack and are lead by 17-year-old highly touted Calgary native Tanner MacMaster who has 20 goals and 18 assists for 38 points in 43 games played.
PHOTO: TY SWABB HAS YET TO FACE THE KODIAKS THIS YEAR
Photo courtesy of Julie Wilson