Photo : Sei Spo Press
Eagles rally takes down Bandits
The Canmore Eagles rallied from two goals down and then went on to defeat the Brooks Bandits 4-3 in overtime on Friday (Sept. 23).
Brooks hosted the Canmore in the return game of their early season Alberta Junior Hockey League home-and-home clash. The Eagles’ Kayden Smith opened the scoring at the Centennial Regional Arena just 15 seconds into the contest, however the Bandits would count three goals in return to hold a two-goal lead heading to the third period. Brooks goals came from Dominick Campione, Luke Marshall and Sam Court.
Kyle Young would then pull the Eagles to within one goal at 9:45 of the third and Smith would count his second goal just 78 seconds later to even the score at 3-3.
In the 3-on-3 overtime, Vincent Scott, who had assists on two of Canmore’s goals, rifled a low, hard shot that eluded the Bandits goaltender for an Eagles’ victory.
Brooks outshot Canmore 45-30 in the game with Matthew Malin in goal for the Eagles and Ethan Barwick in goal for the Bandits.
Canmore improved to 2-2-0-0 on the season with the victory – the other was a 5-4 shootout win over the Drumheller Dragons in the opening game of the season.
The loss was the first for the two times defending champion and early favourite to repeat as the Canadian Junior A Hockey League champions, who had won each of their three previous outings including a 5-3 win in Canmore on Sept. 20.
Dekowny scores two but Eagles come up short versus Canucks
The euphoria of beating the top team in the nation was quickly replaced by disappointment less than 24 hours later as Canmore travelled to the Max Bell Centre in Calgary and lost 4-3 to the Canucks on Saturday (Sept. 24).
The Canucks were the only team in the 16-team league to not have a win this season entering this clash, having lost twice in regulation and once in a shootout. However, that changed against the Eagles as the Canucks broke open a 1-1 tie with the only two goals of the second period and held on despite some late-game pressure from the visitors.
While Canmore was able to rally from two goals down against Brooks the previous night, they would come up a goal short in the afternoon clash.
A goal by Cale Sanders at 6:24 of the first period gave the home side a 1-0 lead, but it was answered back 30 seconds later by Riley Dekowny’s first goal of the game.
The Canucks moved out to a 3-1 lead on second-period goals by Caden Steinke and Matt Corbel.
In the third period, Dekowny’s second goal made it a one-goal deficit. Daniel Rozsival would renew Calgary’s two-goal lead. The Eagles’ Smith then made it a one-goal deficit with just over 90 seconds remaining but the tying goal would prove elusive.
Dekowny and Smith each finished with three points – Dekowny with two goals and one assist, and Smith with one goal and two assists.
Calgary outshot Canmore 30-29 with Andreai Proctor-Ramirez in goal for the Eagles and Connor Martin in goal for the Canucks.
Canmore falls to 2-3-0-0 with the loss, while Calgary improved to 1-2-0-1.
Next up for Canmore is trip to Olds on Tuesday (Sept. 27) to take on the Grizzlys (2-2-0-0), 7 p.m. at the Olds Sportsplex.
Photo : Sei Spo Press