PHOTO: Matt Forchuk had a huge weekend at the AJHL Showcase event scoring three goals and two assists in two games played – file photo courtesy of Julie Wilson.
UPCOMING HOME GAMES:
Tuesday, October 6 – Okotoks Oilers
Friday, October 9 – Camrose Kodiaks
Saturday, October 10 – Calgary Mustangs
The Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Showcase Weekend is all about the opportunity to display your skills in front of an audience of over 200 NCAA and Canadian College scouts.
After four straight years of not taking advantage of centre stage, the Canmore Eagles finally took their turn in the spotlight on Saturday afternoon as they defeated the Sherwood Park Crusaders by a 5-3 margin. The Eagles dropped their first game at the annual Showcase event on Friday night by a 3-2 margin to the Grande Prairie Storm.
The line of Matt Forchuk, Lane Olson, and Logan Ferguson literally stole the show for the Eagles over the weekend as they combined for eight points in Saturday’s victory and had three points in Friday’s loss.
Forchuk, who was named the Eagles “Star of the Game” for both Showcase games, put up three goals and two assists, Olson had three goals and one assist, and Ferguson had two assists.
“That was a much better team effort tonight, “ said a relieved Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne, whose club had dropped the previous 10 consecutive Showcase games. “We played a very solid game. We were hard to play against tonight with our speed, and we were tenacious on all the loose pucks. We played a team game tonight and got rewarded for our efforts. Olson, Forchuk and Ferguson were awesome and certainly led the way for us.”
With the split at the Showcase weekend, the Eagles now sport a 5-4 record and sit in a three-way tie with the Brooks Bandits and Drumheller Dragons for third-place in the AJHL Southern Division standings with 10 points.
The Eagles will now play three straight games on home-ice this week with tilts against the second-place Okotoks Oilers (6-2-1) on Tuesday, first-place Camrose Kodiaks (7-1-1) on Friday, and the sixth-place Calgary Mustangs (4-6) on Saturday.
NOTEBOOK: After sitting out the Eagles previous two games, goaltender Ryan Gilchrist returned to the net to pick up the win in Saturday’s game against Sherwood Park stopping 33 of the 36 shots to improve his early season record to 4-2. . . With their highly productive weekend on the score sheet, both Forchuk and Olson have moved into eighth spot in the AJHL scoring parade with 12 points apiece. Both have six goals and six assists in their nine games played. . . . In the 16 games intra-division games played between the South Division and North Division at the Showcase Event, both divisions won 8 games apiece.