Eagles take off a little bumpy

A new Alberta Junior Hockey League season began the way the last AJHL campaign started for the Canmore Eagles, taking on the Drumheller Dragons. And unfortunately, for the Eagles, it was also another Dragons’ victory.

Bradley Gallo was the second leading scorer in the AJHL last season and opened up his 2024-2025 campaign with a five-point game, including a third-period hat trick, in leading Drumheller to a 5-3 victory.

The two teams had a hard-fought seven-game playoff series last spring, won by the Dragons. Both teams have plenty of returning players, more than a dozen on the Canmore side and almost as many for Drumheller.

Leading Canmore into this game was their AJHL most valuable player candidate from last season, Alex Scheiwiller, 23-12 record with a 2.37 goals-against average, .930 save percentage, and forward Cohen Daoust, who last season tied for sixth in the league in goals with 24 among his 46 points.

Notable for the home team were Gallo, 68 points (33G-35A) last season, and goaltender Sean Cootes (18-13/ 2.43 GAA/ .920 S-Pct).

All four players were pivotal in this game for their respective teams.

Canmore opened the scoring during the back half of a four-minute power play, as newly minted captain Casey Black’s point shot was tapped in by Daoust at 5:56.

Drumheller finally beat Scheiwiller on its 36th shot and 22nd of the second period. Canmore native and rookie forward Tyler Deakos slapping the puck past the Eagles goaltender off a close-in rebound at 13:39.

The Dragons took the lead when Gallo picked up his second assist of the period, setting up Luca Dufour off a two-on-one at 18:26.

The teams fired a combined 70 shots for three goals over the first 49 minutes: 40 on Scheiwiller and 30 on Cootes. It took just nine shots for the next four goals in a 1:40 span. Tavynn Hamilton tied it up for Canmore at 9:31, answered 50 seconds later by Gallo, followed by the Eagles Liam Magnuson scoring at 11 minutes, with Gallo scoring again 19 seconds later to give the Dragons a 4-3 lead.

Gallo completed his hat trick at 14:30. It was the Dragons’ 50th shot.

Drumheller had outshot Canmore 55-36 at the final buzzer.

A parade of minor penalties in the final five minutes saw the Eagles finish with 11 minors (six in final five minutes) and the Dragons 10 minors and two misconducts (four minors and two game misconducts in the final five minutes). On the power play, Canmore went 1-for-5 while Drumheller was 1-for-6.

The Eagles had 12 returning players in the lineup: forwards Daoust, Hamilton, Bryson Insinger, Josh Cleary, Aidan Tkachuk, Hudson Landmark, Will Lutic, defencemen Black, Magnuson, Haruki Morikawa, goaltenders Scheiwiller and Hudson Sedo. The team picked up two players with AJHL experience: D Reid Larson (Whitecourt/ Drayton Valley last season), and F Owen Mastroianni (acquired Wednesday from Devon) to bolster their veteran corps.

AJHL rookies in uniform were F Keegan De Sa (Edge Hockey Academy, Calgary), F Easton Milne (Airdrie CFR Bisons), F Jonathan Gomez (Fairmont Prep, Anaheim, Calif.), F Gus Schill (Yale Hockey Academy, Abbotsford, B.C.), D Berkley Kufflick (Airdrie CFR Bisons) and D Landon Scott (Titans Hockey Union, Spruce Grove). De Sa and Milne each appeared in two Eagles’ games last season.

Not dressing for Canmore were F Miller Komarniski (Fort Saskatchewan Rangers), D Connor Watson and G Grady Peterson (both from Mount St. Charles Academy, Woonsocket, R.I.). The Eagles have two long-term injured players to begin the season, rookie F Kanyan Unger (knee, Fort Saskatchewan Rangers) and second-year F Cole Wadsworth (shoulder).

Canmore heads to Calgary next to take on the defending national champion Canucks, Max Bell Centre, Saturday, 5 p.m. The Canucks replaced their head coach, firing Jak Pylpuik before the regular season even began, replacing him with Calgary native Mat Robinson, who played 13 seasons in the KHL and played for Canada at the 2018 and 2022 Olympics, retiring after the 2021-22 season.

OVERTIME: AJHL teams will once again play a 54-game regular season, with six games against each division opponent and four against each team in the other division. … There is no Showcase weekend this season. … Canmore will play a third road game before its first home game, travelling to Olds on Tuesday (Sept. 23), Olds Sportsplex, 7 PM.

The first home game is Saturday, Sept. 27, versus the Bonnyville Pontiacs, Canmore Recreation Centre, 7 p.m., followed on Sunday, Sept 28, versus the Lloydminster Bobcats, Canmore Recreation Centre, 2 p.m.