UPCOMING GAMES
Wednesday, Nov. 12 – Calgary Canucks at Banff Fenlands Arena – 7 pm
Friday, Nov. 14 – Drayton Valley at Canmore Recreation Centre – 7 PM
Thanks to a 5-4 victory over the Whitecourt Wolverines on Friday night and a 3-2 over-time loss to the Drayton Valley Thunder on Saturday night, the Canmore Eagles returned home from their three game weekend road trip with a .500 record and three points in the Alberta Junior Hockey League Southern Division standings.
In Sunday’s final game of their road trip, the well-rested and first-place Camrose Kodiaks (17-2-2) took advantage of a worn-out Eagle club and pummeled the Eagles 9-1.
The Eagles now sit in sixth-place in the AJHL Southern Division standings with 21 points and a record of 10-12-1
“We certainly weren’t happy with the result in Camrose, but these things happen in junior hockey when you play three games on the road in two and half days,” said Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne, whose club logged over 1,200 km of snowy travel over the three days. “Camrose may be the best team in the AJHL and they certainly took advantage of the situation and really took it to us. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much left in our tank and we couldn’t respond to the challenge this time around.
“But overall, we just have to remain positive, forget about Sunday’s game, and focus on the fact that we came home with three points and a .500 record, so the trip was OK. We have five of our next seven games on home ice, so we’ll put this trip behind us and start concentrating on what we need to do to be successful going forward.”
NOTEBOOK: After facing 44 shots on Friday night and 41 shots on Saturday night, Canmore goaltender Ryan Ferguson still wanted to play in Sunday’s game in Camrose but only made it to the 3rd minute mark of the second period when Milne showed his all-star goaltender some mercy and gave him the hook with the score at 4-0 for Camrose. Sixteen-year-old Hunter Virostek, who was called up to replace the injured Levi Nelson, got his first taste of AJHL action and stopped 26 of the remaining 31 Kodiak shots. Camrose outshot the Eagles by a wide 49-25 margin. . . .The Eagles played the weekend without the services of defenceman Jeremy Gordon and Jakob Lavoie and forwards Simon Philp and Matt Forchuk