PHOTO – Daylan Marchi raises his arms in celebration after line-mate Jake Ashton scores a second period goal in route to a 5-1 victory over the Calgary Mustangs on Monday afternoon. – photo courtesy of Pam Doyle.
UPCOMING HOME GAMES
Friday, February 19 – Grande Prairie Storm at Canmore – 7 PM
Saturday, February 20 – Whitecourt Wolverines at Canmore – 7 PM
The Canmore Eagles received goals from five different players and went on to defeat the visiting Calgary Mustangs 5-1 in Alberta Junior Hockey League action Monday afternoon at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
The victory, before 475 fans, capped off a great weekend for the Eagles as they picked up five out of a possible six points over the Family Day Holiday weekend and solidified their fourth-place position in the AJHL Southern Division standings.
With a record of 23-24-6, Canmore now has 52 points and currently enjoys a seven point advantage over the fifth-place Drumheller Dragons (20-29-5) in the battle for fourth-place. The fourth-place finisher will enjoy home ice advantage when the playoffs begin in mid-March. The Eagles have seven games remaining in their regular season schedule, while the Dragons have just six games remaining.
Kurt Hildebrand (2nd), Adam Tisdale (9th), Jake Ashton (6th), Brett Schimmel (4th), and Logan Ferguson (17th) had the Eagle goals in Monday’s game, while goaltender Ryan Bonorin stopped 29 of 30 Mustangs shots to improve his overall record to 14-16-4. The Eagles, who won all six games against the Mustangs this season, outshot the Mustangs 40-30.
“Well a win, is a win I guess,” said Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne, whose club has gone 3-0-2 in the month of February. “We didn't play a very structured game in the first period but we did generate a half dozen prime A scoring chances that we didn't capitalize on. We did play a more structured game in the second period and took control of the game.
“Ryan Bontorin was awesome for us all weekend but especially today. It's also great to see guys like Saretsky (Braden) on Saturday and Tisdale (Adam) on Monday step up and play great games. With a depleted lineup due to injuries, we needed a gritty game from our back end and they were good all weekend.
“It's going to be a good week for us to get some rest and get healthy. Once that happens, and we get all our guys back, we feel we are moving the right direction.“
NOTEBOOK: The injury bug has hit the Eagles hard as forwards Matt Forchuk, Ryley Risling, Kyle Pauls and defenceman Brayden Biccum and Cole Noble all missed Monday’s game with various injuries. Forward Nolan Kurylo also went down in Monday’s game and missed the second and third periods. . . .Eagle forward Logan Ferguson has picked up 22 points in his last 16 games and has only been kept off the score sheet once during that 16-game segment. The 18-year forward, who recently committed to Div. 1 Holy Cross University, is now in fifth-place in the AJHL scoring parade with 66 points. Linemate Matt Forchuk is in fourth-place with 67 points. . . .Eagle goaltender Ryan Gilchrist missed the weekend as he was called up by the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL. . . Calgary Blackhawk AA Midget goaltender Logan Dyck was called up to back-up starter Ryan Bontorin.