Magic 8 Ball

The Canmore Eagles can see the finish line but the Calgary Canucks continue to breathe down their collective necks.

The two teams met at the Canmore Recreation Centre on Sunday (Feb. 23) afternoon as the battle for first place in the South Division of the Alberta Junior Hockey League heated up with the visitors edging the home side 5-4 in overtime in a tense affair where power plays became a focal point.

It was one of two games for Canmore, with the other an 8-1 hammering of the Olds Grizzlys on Friday (Feb. 21) at the CRC.

As a result, Canmore (33-11-5-1) is on 72 points through 50 games, four points ahead of the Calgary Canucks (32-12-2-2). The Eagles have four games remaining while the Canucks have six to play over the next three weeks. Any combination of eight points by Canmore and/or lost by Calgary in the run-in to the playoffs would be good enough for the Eagles to clinch first place in the division.

Also still in the mix are the Camrose Kodiaks (29-12-2-5) with 65 points but any combination of five points lost to the frontrunners eliminates them from top spot contention.

The Whitecourt Wolverines (30-11-2-3) are first in the North Division with 65 points with eight games remaining. There is the possibility of overtaking both Canmore and Calgary for the overall No. 1 spots in the final few games of its schedule should they go on a winning run.

This week, Canmore hosts Drayton Valley Thunder (21-19-4-3) on Friday, Feb. 28. The Eagles have struggled against the fifth-place Thunder, winning just one of four games this season. Canmore also has to travel to Drayton Valley on Saturday, March 8. The remaining two games include hosting Camrose on Friday, March 7, the Eagles have won both previous games played at the CRC but lost all three played at the Encana Arena in Camrose. The season will finish up in Olds on Friday, March 14, with recent history showing a trio of decisive victories with Eagles outscoring the Grizzlys 27-7.

Calgary has six games remaining with five of those at the Max Bell Centre. Calgary hosts Drayton Valley on Saturday, March 1 and Sunday, March 2 – the last time these two teams met, Feb. 17, the Thunder won 4-1. The Canucks will then host Camrose on Saturday, March 8 and Olds on Sunday, March 9. The Canucks finish up with two games on the final weekend of the regular season, on the road to the Drumheller Dragons on Friday, March 14 and back home versus Olds on Saturday, March 15.

Camrose host Olds on Saturday, March 1 and Drumheller on Sunday, March 2, will be in Canmore on Friday, March 7 and Calgary on Saturday, March 8, host Fort McMurray on Tuesday, March 11, and finish up the regular season in Whitecourt on Saturday, March 15.

As for Whitecourt, its next game is Tuesday versus the Bonnyville Pontiacs, followed by a road trip to Grande Prairie Storm on Friday, Feb. 28. The games in March include a trip to Bonnyville on Tuesday, March 4, in Lloydminster to take on the Bobcats on Wednesday, March 5, at Devon Xtreme on Saturday, March 8, then finishing up with a pair of home games, Drayton Valley on Friday, March 14 and Camrose on Saturday, March 15.

Canmore latest demolition of Olds at the Canmore Recreation Centre featured four-point performances by Owen Jones and Casey Black, each with one goal and three assists.

Rhett Dekowny (25th goal) followed by Keston Beagle (2) and Black (9) gave Canmore a 3-0 lead after one period.

In the second Canmore built a 6-0 lead on goals by Rawji (18), Lutic (6) and Jones (19) before Aidan Knutson (6) got Olds on the board. Lutic (7) would score his second of the period to round out the middle frame goals.

Tkachuk (9) had the lone third-period tally.

Canmore outshot Olds 55-16 with Alex Scheiwiller in goal for the Eagles and Cole Prelusky, making his junior A debut, going the distance for the Grizzlys.

On the power play, Canmore was 4-for-9 while Olds was 1-for-5.

Calgary tried its best to put this game away in regulation time, even pulling the goalie with the game tied and less than two minutes to play in the third period, as every point down the stretch may prove valuable.

Power plays would play a big part in this game as Canmore fought back from being down by two goals on two occasions in this game.

Jack Plandowski would register the hat trick for Calgary, including the game winner, to retake the lead in the AJHL scoring race with 66 points (29G-37A).

The Canucks took the lead midway through the first period on Plandowski’s first goal of the game, a power-play goal during a 5-on-3 with Canmore serving a pair of simultaneous bench minor penalties.

Ethan Look (20) knotted the game up 5:12 of the second period, off a bad defensive error in the Calgary zone that put the puck on Cohen Daoust’s stick, with a quick, sharp pass leading to an easy tap in at the far post.

Plandowski would come back with a second power-play goal with 17 seconds left in the second period to put Calgary back in front.

Bowden Singleton (18) gave the visitors a 3-1 lead less than three minutes into the third period.

Dekowny (26) scored on the power play to make it a one-goal difference at 5:34 only to have it answered by Rhett Melnyk (18) on the power play at 7:02 to put the Canucks up 4-2.

Canmore would rally back to tie it on goals by Jones (20), on what was a superb individual shift that saw him weaving his way through the Calgary defence, checking, passing and finally getting onto a rebound for the score at 9:32. Cohen Daoust (17) would then tie the game during an Eagles’ 5-on-3 power play at 14:27, tipping home a Lutic pass while standing off the left-side post.

This clash then needed to go to 3-on-3 overtime with Plandowski ending it 61 seconds into the session when he got in alone on goal and made no mistake with his game-winning shot. Canmore has two wins and five losses this season in contests decided in overtime.

Following an opening period in which there were just 13 shots between the two teams, the game heated up and Calgary would outshot Canmore 40-31 by game’s end with Scheiwiller in goal for the Eagles and Lukas Renaud in goal for the Canucks.

The talking point though after this game would be the penalties – not the amount but the type called in this tense clash – especially to the home side as Canmore went 2-for-4 on the power play and Calgary was 3-for-6. Among the penalties, Canmore was assessed three bench minors and an unsportsmanlike conduct call, with a 10-minute misconduct to Jaren Brinson after a contentious slashing call that saw him miss 10 minutes of the second period. A game misconduct at the conclusion of this affair to captain Dekowny was clearly for channeling the frustrations of his teammates and the more than 600 fans in attendance.

Canmore’s overtime loss to the Canucks means the team has not lost in regulation time at the Canmore Recreation Centre in its last 18 games (16 wins and two overtime defeats), dating back to Nov. 8, 2024. The other overtime loss came to Drayton Valley, who the Eagles host on Friday, Feb. 28.

Dekowny is third in league scoring with 58 points (26G-32A). He is also on a current seven-game, goal-scoring streak (7G), 15-game points streak (12G-14A), has a 14-game home points streak (12G-13A) and a seven -game road-points streak (6G-7A).

Linemate Owen Jones is also on 58 points (20G-38A), with the Canmore native also on a 14 home games points streak (10G-21A) and eight home games streak for assists (15).

Cammore has three players with at least 20 goals this season as Jones and Look joined the 20-goal club in the loss to Calgary. Just nine AJHL players have reached that plateau this season with the Eagles the lone team to place multiple players on the list.

Canmore, Calgary and Drumheller each have three players in the top 10 in league scoring, with Rawji 10th on the list with 47 points (18G-29A).

Look is 14th in league scoring with 42 points (20G-22A) and has registered four goals and seven assists over his last 10 games.

Casey Black already has three defensive player of the week awards to his name and picked up another five points (1G-4A) this past week to move to second among all AJHL blue-line players in scoring with 33 points (9G-24A) in just 27 games.

Daoust saw his six-game points streak (5G-7A) end when he failed to register a point in the team’s thrashing of Olds on Friday but he was back racking up points on Saturday with a goal and an assist. The second-year forward from St. Albert has 21 points (7G-14A) over his past 10 games, and has 37 points (17G-20A) for the season.

Lutic continued his point-per-game pace since joining the Eagles on Jan. 10. The rookie forward had two goals and two assists on the weekend and now has 18 points in 15 games (7G-11A).

Canmore’s power play is now the best in the league, operating at 22.7 per cent overall, with a league-leading 57 goals on a league-topping 251 opportunities.

The Eagles’ penalty killing continues to be the third best at 84 per cent, despite giving up four power-play goals to the opposition on the weekend. Calgary and Whitecourt are the top two penalty killing teams giving up just 18 and 19 goals respectively while Canmore has been scored on a third-least 31 times while shorthanded.

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.

Russ Ullyot