Eagles silenced by the Storm

The Canmore Eagles’ road trip to the province’s northwest got off to a turbulent start on Friday.

Participating in the Grande Prairie Storm’s Hockey Hooky day for the second successive year, the midday clash resulted in a 5-1 Storm victory. The Eagles won last year’s Alberta Junior Hockey League Hockey Hooky matchup by the same score.

The Eagles were stymied by a stellar goaltending display from former Burlington Cougar (Ontario Junior Hockey League) Leland Gill (2-1/1.62/.950), who made 41 saves to continue his hot start to the season.

Colin Doherty scored twice and assisted on one goal as Grande Prairie built a 4-0 lead by the midpoint of the game. Also scoring for the Storm were Will Harris, Zachary Wilson and Chase Christensen.

Cohen Daoust, with his team-leading sixth goal, had the lone reply for Canmore.

Canmore is now 3-3-0-0 on the season, having a three-game winning streak snapped, and are fourth in the South Division.

This was the first of three games over a three-day period for Canmore’s, which continues Saturday, 7 p.m. in Whitecourt, and finishes Sunday, 2 p.m. in Drayton Valley.

Grande Prairie opened the scoring on the power play 39 seconds into the contest. Hudson Landmark was assessed a slashing penalty in the offensive zone just eight seconds prior to Harris (2nd goal of the season) tapping in a loose puck in front of the Canmore goal.

Doherty (2) made it 2-0 nine minutes later when crashing towards the goal he deflected a centring pass from Brandon de Haas, charging down the left wing, into the goal.

Canmore had given up just two first-period goals in its first five games.

Wilson (2) would give the Storm a three-goal lead at 17:58 with a shot inside the far post from the right wing face-off spot.

In the second period, Doherty (3) scored his second of the game when a goal-line shot hit Scheiwiller on the left shoulder and dropped into the goal at 9:27.

Canmore finally got on the board at 17:23 when Daoust (6) was the recipient of a deflected pass by Landmark that he then fired over the left shoulder of Gill from below the right-wing, face-off dot. It was the Eagles 31st shot of the game.

Any idea of a Canmore comeback in the third period of this game was thwarted by Gill with the final dagger coming from Chase Christensen (3), looking like a replay of Daoust’s shot, at 15:42.

Canmore outshot Grande Prairie 42-25.

On the power play, Grande Prairie went 1-for-5 while Canmore was 0-for-2.

OVERTIME: Grande Prairie won the North Division playoff championship and earned a trip to the Centennial Cup last spring, though they were swept 4-0 in the league final by the Calgary Canucks. The Storm went 2-2 at the national junior A championship tournament while Calgary, which hosted the event, would go on to be crowned champions. … Canmore’s next home game is Tuesday, Oct. 14 when they host the Drumheller Dragons beginning at 7 p.m. … All AJHL games can be viewed with a flohockey.tv subscription. …

The Canmore Eagles are in need of more volunteers to help with game day experiences, email info@canmoreeagles.com for more information on opportunities, and game-day perks that come with being part of the Game Day Crew.

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