Eagles tops in AJHL South

The Canmore Eagles took five of eight points on their four-game road swing last week.

One of the busiest weeks of its Alberta Junior Hockey League schedule, with four games in six days, saw Canmore lose a thrilling shootout 3-2 to the Olds Grizzlys on Tuesday (Dec. 10), defeat the Grande Prairie Storm 4-2 on Friday (Dec. 13), lose to the North-leading Whitecourt Wolverines 3-1 on Saturday (Dec. 14) and finish up with a 5-1 win over the Drayton Valley Thunder on Sunday (Dec. 15).

Canmore holds down first place in the South Division with a record of 18-8-3-1 for 40 points. The Eagles are three points better than the Calgary Canucks (17-9-1-2) in a tightly packed South with Camrose Kodiaks (16-8-1-2) at 35 points and the fourth-place Drumheller Dragons (16-12-2-0) at 34 points.

Canmore will finish up the pre-Christmas portion of its schedule with two home games at the Canmore Recreation Centre: Drumheller visits Friday, Dec. 29 and Grande Prairie (18-6-1-1 for 38 points, second in the North) are the Saturday, Dec. 21 opponent. Both games have 7 p.m. start times.

Another 49-shot performance by Canmore didn’t net the same result against Olds on the road as it did at home three days prior to Tuesday’s game. The Eagles won 7-2 on Dec. 7 but would fall to the Grizzlys in an 11-round shootout.

Kaden Hayes (first junior goal) and Junshi Hideshima (10) gave the home side a 2-0 lead in the first period. Canmore rallied in the third period with goals 44 seconds apart as Kayden Rawji (9) scored at 5:02 followed by Owen Jones (9).

Olds goaltender Ben Dardis was then unbeatable the remainder of the game. The Mahtomedi, Minn. native would make 58 saves, including all 11 needed in the shootout to give his team the victory.

Alex Scheiwiller made 25 saves through the first 65 minutes, went save-for-save with Dardis in the shootout until Olds captain Connor Seeley, who looked to have fanned on his initial shot attempt only to gather the puck back up, wired a low, hard shot for the game winner.

Canmore had one more chance to beat Dardis, who would make the save off Haruki Morikawa to ensure the win.

Canmore won for the second time in Grande Prairie this season on the late-game heroics of Jones, who set up the tie-breaking goal and finished the game off with an empty-net marker.

Canmore took the lead on first-period goals by Ethan Look (11) and Casey Black (2). Grande Prairie would rally on goals from Logan Cunningham (5) in the second period and Tomis Marinkovic (9) just before the mid-point of the third period.

Jones’s long shot through a screen would be tipped by Rhett Dekowny (9) down and past the right pad of Grande Prairie goaltender Nicholas Jones for the game winner at 18:22. Jones (10) would then cap his night with a goal into the empty net with 33 seconds to play.

Grande Prairie outshot Canmore 34-29 with Scheiwiller in goal for the Eagles.

In a battle for first overall in the AJHL, Whitecourt would prevail on its home ice using a pair of third-period goals to grab the win.

The teams exchanged first-period goals with Braden Keeble (6) giving the Wolverines the early lead and Black (3) replying for the Eagles late in the period.

Following a scoreless second period, Ewan McPherson (8) would give the home side the lead at 7:19. Ethan Short (12) would then add an empty net goals with 37 seconds remaining to put the Wolverines (20-6-1-1) on 42 points, which at week’s end would be two better than the Eagles.

Whitecourt outshot Canmore 30-26 with Scheiwiller in goals for the Eagles and Zac Onyskiw between the pipes for the Wolverines.

Drayton Valley (0-13-3-2, 5th in the South) changed its ownership group last week but its on-ice change of fortunes have yet to be realized. The Thunder suffered their fourth consecutive loss on Sunday to Canmore.

Five different players scored for the Eagles including Brayden Schwartz scoring his first junior goal, coming in his 17th game this season. The Edge School product is in his rookie season after helping his alma mater capture a Canadian Sport School Hockey League U18 national championship last spring.

Schwartz’s goal, sweeping the puck between the pads of Thunder goaltender Nicholas Cristiano off a pass from Tavynn Schlatt, came after Look (12) scored on the power play to open the scoring, and gave Canmore a 2-0 lead through 20 minutes.

Drayton Valley native Caedem Emmett would score his first goal for his hometown team to cut the deficit to one-goal after two periods.

The Eagles would grab the win with a three-goal final period.

Nolan Kazeil scored his first goal of the season and his first regular-season goal since Jan. 27, 2023 – 83 games – while with Fort McMurray Oil Barons. As a result, the team holds down first place in the South Division with a record of 18-8-3-1 for 40 points. Playing his 125th AJHL game, the Edmonton native’s blue-line slapper feathered its way through a crowd in front of goal and past a screened Cristiano.

A power-play goal by Dekowny (10) followed by an Aidan Tkachuk (4) marker rounded out the scoring.

Canmore outshot Drayton Valley 33-32 with Scheiwiller in goal for the Eagles.

Scheiwiller has been between the pipes for 10 of the last 11 games and has gone 8-1-1 and has been beaten for three goals in just one of those appearances. The Calgary native, who previously played for the Okotoks Oilers and Spruce Grove Saints joined the Eagles in the off season. He now has a 2.46 goals-against average and .917 save percentage while improving his personal record to 11-5-4.

Scheiwiller endurance has been tested with his goaltending partner Hudson Sedo playing for Canada West at the World Junior A Hockey Challenge. The rookie goaltender, who has been one of the best in the AJHL this season prior to getting a call up to first the Western Hockey League Prince Albert Raiders and then Canada West, had a rocky debut on the international stage, coming out with a 6.85 goals-against average and an .805 save percentage.

Sedo was joined on the team by fellow Eagle Zach Coutu (four games, no points, two penalty minutes), who was a post-camp callup. The pair would bring home bronze medals after a 5-2 win over Canada East in Sunday’s third-place game.

Casey Black has points in each of his seven games (3G-5A) since returning to the Eagles for his third season after starting the winter campaign with the Okotoks Oilers of the BCHL.

Jones ran his points streak to five games (3G-6A) and has 17 points (6G-11A) in his last 11 games. Overall, the Canmore native has 27 points (10G-17A) in 25 games his season.

Dekowny picked up two goals and one assist over his three-game weekend after missing Tuesday’s game in Olds due to a one-game suspension for a high hit in the Dec. 7 game against the Grizzlys.

Canmore’s power play would go 2-for-6 against Drayton Valley and 3-for-16 over the four games to improve slightly to 15.2 per cent (19/125) for the season, 11th best in 12-team circuit. The penalty kill though made up for the lack of power-play goals by killing off all 14 opposition man advantages and is fourth best overall at 84.3 per cent (97/115).

Canmore was again without Jaren Brinson (ankle), Cole Wadsworth (shoulder), Nathan MacPherson-Ridgewell (upper body) while Sedo and Zach Coutu were also unavailable for the week.

EAGLES NEST: Tickets for Canmore Eagles’ home games are available at canmoreeagles.ca/tickets. … Following the Christmas break, the Eagles will return to action with a pair of home games: Friday, Jan. 3 versus Drumheller and Saturday, Jan. 4 against Drayton Valley. … You can watch Eagles’ games as well as the rest of the AJHL online, along with much more live and on demand sports, through a FloSports subscription available at flohockey.tv.

Russ Ullyot