PHOTO: Canmore's Braden Saretsky pounces on a loose puck to score the Eagle's first goal of the game but it wasn't enough as the Olds Grizzlys came back to post a 4-3 OT win on Friday night. (photo courtesy of Pam Doyle)
Who ever termed the expression “every last second counts” certainly must have had sporting events in mind.
The Canmore Eagles learned that lesson the hard way on Friday night as they surrendered a game-tying goal to the Olds Grizzlys with less than one second to play in regulation time and ultimately fell 4-3 in sudden-death overtime to the Grizzlys in Alberta Junior Hockey League action at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
The Eagles appeared to have the game in control as they led 3-1 half way through the third period but failed to put the Grizzlys away.
The loss, before 440 fans, drops the Eagle's record to 9-7-2, while Olds improves to 6-9-2.
Braden Saretsky (3rd), Lane Olson (9th) and Braiden Doucette (5th) had the Eagle goals while goaltender Ryan Gilchrist (5-3-1) took the loss stopping 31 of the 35 Grizzly shots fired his way. The Eagles outshot Olds by a 42-35 margin.
“It’s a fine line between playing with confidence and being too cocky,” said Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne afterwards. “Tonight we were too cocky and we didn’t execute very well. We didn’t start the game well, we took too many penalties, and we got caught watching them too many times. We had this game under control and we let it slip away.”
The Eagles will now hit the road for their next three games starting with a Halloween night game in Okotoks against the third-place Oilers (10-7-1), before heading to Calgary to face the Canucks on Wednesday Nov. 4 and to Drumheller to face the Dragons on Saturday, Nov. 7.
The Eagles next home game will be on Tuesday, Nov. 10 when the Calgary Canucks pay their first regular season visit to Canmore.
NOTEBOOK: Rookie Adam Tisdale, with two assists, was named the Eagle's “Star of the Game” . . . In a special pre-game ceromony, Luc Turcotte was honoured as the Eagle's “Volunteer of the Year” for the 2014-15 season . . . Eagle fans are certainly getting their monies worth this October as four of the Eagle's five home games went into overtime with the fifth game being decidied by a single goal. The Eagles went 3-0-2 at home in October.