After winning the first game of the doubleheader against the rival Camrose Kodiaks on Friday night, the Eagles were in a good position to sweep the doubleheader heading into the final frame Saturday night at the Canmore Recreation Centre. Just like on Friday night, the Eagles were up by 3 goals after 40 minutes. But unfortunately, it was a different outcome. In the 3rd period, the visitors exploded with 6 unanswered goals to win the game 6-3 and split the doubleheader. A costly loss for the Eagles as a regulation win would have given them a share of 4th Place with the Kodiaks, but instead, the Kodiaks are back 4 points up on the Eagles. The Eagles record is now 7-10-2 for 16 points.
When asking Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne about what happened in the 3rd or if there was a turning point, he answered saying, ?I don?t think there was a turning point. They got some lucky breaks, on one of their goals, we scored on us. It was everything that they did went well and everything we did went poorly for us. We were not sharp mentally, we made some mental mistakes and it cost us.?
After a scoreless opening frame, the Eagles opened the scoring early in the 2nd period when Connor Lyons scored only 23 seconds in with Zach Carlson and Jared Bowman picking up the assists. The Eagles added to their lead at 12:16 when Cam Sterling took advantage of a Kodiaks miscue in their zone to score his 1st goal of the season. Then at 17:17, Connor Lyons made it 3-0 Eagles with his 2nd of the game and 16th of the season. Bowman and Carter Coles assisted.
At that point, the Eagles were in control of the game heading into the final frame. The Kodiaks got on the board with a power-play goal from Jacob Kendall at 1:05 of the 3rd. After that, it was all Kodiaks, as the visitors scored their 6 unanswered goals within 11:43, including Kendall getting a hat-trick.
It was Kadin Kilpatrick who in net for the Eagles for the 5th consecutive game. He stopped 30 of 36 shots and took his first regulation loss since joining the Eagles in the middle of October. The final shots on goal were 36-31 in favour of Camrose.
That weekend doubleheader wrapped up a 5-game homestand, in which the Eagles went 2-1-2. The Eagles will now head on the road to play their next 4 games, starting with a 2-game Northern trip next weekend. The Eagles will visit the Lloydminster Bobcats (2-15-3) on Friday night and the Bonnyville Pontiacs (12-4-2) on Saturday night.
The Eagles will also travel to Drumheller and Okotoks the following week before returning home on Saturday, November 16 against the defending North division champions, the Spruce Grove Saints (16-4).
?We need to get mentally tougher going forward,? said Coach Milne. ?We did play 5 great periods of hockey against a good hockey club this weekend, but we are mentally fragile and we looked tired.?
EAGLES FUN FACTS:
– Since the Camrose Kodiaks have been coming to town for an annual doubleheader in the 2001-02 season, it was the 7th time that the two teams split the doubleheader.
Photo from Pam Doyle Photography