The Canmore Eagles continue to top the Alberta Junior Hockey League South Division and hold onto the No. 1 overall position in the 12-team, two division loop but are starting to feel the heat once again from the chasing teams.
Canmore has a record of 29-11-4-1 for 63 points after winning one and losing one this past week. The loss was 5-1 to the Dragons in Drumheller on Friday (Feb. 7). The victory was 4-2 on home ice over the Fort McMurray Oil Barons.
Canmore is a single point ahead of the Calgary Canucks (29-11-2-0), who hold a game in hand on the Eagles. The Whitecourt Wolverines (28-10-2-2) are at 60 points but have three games in hand when it comes to topping the overall standings.
While Canmore appears to be the hottest team if you look at their record over the last 10 games, eight wins and two losses, it is those setbacks that have them looking over their collective shoulders. After some stumbling in early January, the Canucks are on a five-game winning streak while the Wolverines are on a four-game winning streak.
Meanwhile, Canmore continues to stumble on the road against potential South Division playoff teams. The Eagles only win on the road this season against Calgary, third-place Camrose Kodiaks (25-12-2-2) or fourth-place Drumheller (25-16-2-0) was on the second day of the regular season: 3-2 in a shootout over the Canucks, Sept. 14, 2024. Against the three teams, the Eagles are 1-6-1-0 away from the Canmore Recreation Centre with one game still to play at Drumheller on Saturday, Feb. 15.
Fortunately, Canmore has been a perfect 7-0-0-0 at home against those same clubs with two matchups remaining: Calgary on Sunday, Feb. 23, and Camrose on Friday, March 7. Canmore has not lost a home contest in regulation time since Nov. 8 — 5-3 to Whitecourt — going 12-0-1-0 through Sunday’s victory.
Canmore has just nine games left this regular season, with six of those home games, beginning Tuesday, Feb. 11 against the Lloydminster Bobcats in Banff, 7 p.m. at the Banff Fenlands Recreation Centre.
The Eagles will take on the South Division’s last-place Olds Grizzlys (14-28-1-0) three times, twice on home ice beginning Friday, Feb. 14, 7 p.m. at the Canmore Recreation Centre. The two teams will also hook up at the Canmore Recreation Centre on Friday, Feb. 21 and on the final day of the regular season for Canmore, Friday, March 14 in Olds.
Canmore also has two games with the South Division’s fifth-place Drayton Valley Thunder (18-16-4-3) in Canmore on Friday, Feb. 28 and in Drayton Valley on Saturday, March 8.
Eagles 1 at Dragons 5
Finding the ingredient for the winning road formula against fellow championship contenders continued to elude Canmore when they travelled to Drumheller.
The Dragons ran out to a 4-0 lead by 3:56 of the second period on first-period goals by Kai Matthew (4th of the season) and Tristan Payne (1) followed by second-period tallies by Ayden Peters (16) and Allen Sherpa (7).
Rhett Dekowny, coming off being named the AJHL player of the month for January, continued his hot hand with his 20th goal of the season to get Canmore on the board in the middle frame.
Matthew (5) added his second of the game early in the third period to complete the scoring.
Drumheller has a penchant for taking penalties when playing against Canmore and it was no different this game, with the Dragons giving up nine power plays to the Eagles, with Dekowny’s goal coming on the man advantage. The Dragons were 1-for-3 on the power play.
Canmore outshot Drumheller 38-33 with Hudson Sedo in goal for the Eagles and Matthew Kondro in goal for the Dragons.
Canmore introduced a new forward for the game in 2007-born Hudson Landmark of Sherwood Park. The 6-foot-3 forward was plucked out of the BCHL. He played 11 AJHL games over the past two seasons with the AJHL Crusaders with a goal and an assist to his credit, and was picked by the Winnipeg Ice in the eighth round of the WHL Bantam Draft in 2022.
The Eagles were without the services of goaltender Alex Scheiwiller (with the WHL Kamloops Blazers), forwards Kayden Rawji (undisclosed), Will Lutic (undisclosed), Cole Wadsworth (shoulder), and defence Keston Beagle (undisclosed).
Oil Barons 2 at Eagles 4
The last time these two teams met at the Canmore Recreation Centre, Nov. 5, 2024, Fort McMurray slipped out of town with a 3-0 victory. Dekowny would make sure that didn’t happen again, scoring his 21st goal of the season and the game’s opening goal just 21 seconds after the opening puck drop.
While Dekowny put the Eagles on the road to victory it would be Cohen Daoust stealing the headlines yet again with a four-point performance with two goals and two assists.
The Eagles’ second-year forward put himself in contention for the goal of the year with his 12th goal of the season in the first period, grabbing the final pass off a cross-ice sequence through Dekowny and Owen Jones and then rounding the goalkeeper and backhanding the puck into the open goal.
Daoust would then help set up a second-period, power-play goal for Ethan Look (19) and then scored an empty net marker (his 13th goal) with 22 seconds remaining in the game.
Fort McMurray did keep it close pulling with one goal twice in the contest with a second-period goal by Leo Adams (5) and third-period goal by Mason Finley (10).
Canmore outshot Fort McMurray 33-29 with Scheiwiller back between the posts for the Eagles and Vincent Filion in goal for the Oil Barons.
On the power play, Canmore was 1-for-7 and Fort McMurray went 0-for4.
The Eagles were without forwards Rawji (undisclosed), Keifer Miller (undisclosed) and Wadsworth (shoulder). Haruki Morikawa returned to a forward role for the first time since mid-September.
The notebook
Dekowny was named the AJHL player of the month for January after recording 20 points (7G-13A) in nine January games, including five two-point games, two three-point games and a four-point (1G-3A) game. The Lethbridge native was held off the scoresheet only once. The 20-year-old forward hasn’t slowed down in February with three goals and four assists in five games and is third in league scoring with 51 points (21G-30A). He is also currently on a 10-games points streak (7G-12A) and also holds a 10-game home points streak (7G-13A).
Jones is fourth in league scoring with 47 points (17G-30A), with the Canmore native also on a 10 home games points streak (7G-14A).
After missing both games last week, Rawji has slipped to eighth in AJHL scoring as he stays on 43 points (17G-26A).
Nine of the top 11 points collectors in the league this season come from three teams. Canmore, Calgary and Drumheller each have three players in that group led by the Canucks’ Jack Plandowski with 62 points (25G-37A).
Daoust has three goals and eight assists in his last five games and is on 27 points (13G-14A) in 44 games this season, more than double what he put up in his rookie season (3G-10A) when he played 40 games.
Look is averaging nearly a point-per-game over his last 16 games (8G-7A), dating back to Dec. 15, 2024.
Casey Black has 22 points (6G-16A) in 22 games played since returning to the Eagles on Nov. 29, 2024.
Will Lutic has 12 points (4G-8A) in 10 games since joining the Eagles on Jan. 10. The rookie forward is on a five-game points streak (1G-7A).
Scheiwiller continues to perform like he wants to be in the conversation for AJHL goaltender of the year with another stellar performance to improve his record to 18-6-3, continuing to lower his goals-against average, now at 2.33, and up his save percentage , now .924. It will still be hard to catch Whitecourt’s Zac Onyskiw, who is 21-6-1, 1.85GAA and .940S/Pct.
EAGLES NEST: Canmore Eagles tickets are available at canmoreeagles.ca/tickets. … If you can’t attend in person, you can watch Eagles’ games as well as the rest of the AJHL online, along with much more live and on demand hockey, through a FloSports subscription available at flohockey.tv. … The second Banff Fenlands Recreation Centre contest is Tuesday, Feb. 11 with the Lloydminster Bobcats the opposition. The attendance at November’s game in Banff – a 2-1 win by Canmore over Calgary – was 1,072. The game will not be televised but audio will be available, check out the Eagles’ social media channels for instructions to tune into the contest.
Russ Ullyot
