Magic Numbers

The Canmore Eagles are poised to claim top spot in the Alberta junior Hockey League’s South Division. The magic number is now ‘1’.

Canmore (31-18-2-1) defeated the Olds Grizzlys 5-2 on Tuesday to improve to 65 points and now needs just a single point from its three remaining games, or a little help from teams playing the chasing Drumheller Dragons (25-19-2-4) at 56 points, to clinch its first division banner since the 2002-03 season.

Next up for the Eagles are back-to-back games with the chasing Dragons – Saturday, March 7, at the Drumheller Memorial Arena, and Tuesday, March 10, at the Canmore Recreation Centre – and close out the season with a home game, Friday, March 13 versus Olds.

Drumheller must win all its five remaining games, including the two with Canmore. The Dragons also play the Devon Xtreme on Friday, March 6 and finish up the season with home games against the fourth-place Calgary Canucks (23-23-2-1 for 49 points) on Friday, March 13 and third-place Camrose Kodiaks (25-23-2-1 for 53 points) on Sunday, March 15.

The Canucks have six games remaining and the Kodiaks have four more to play as they vie for third place. The two teams meet in Calgary for a Wednesday, March 4, matinee (1:30 p.m.) in a rescheduled game. The two teams also have their sights set on a possible second place finish as Camrose has lost seven games in a row. The Kodiaks were eliminated from top-spot contention with Canmore’s victory over Olds.

In Tuesday’s game, Bryson Insinger (17) opened the scoring at 9:14 with just his second goal in 11 games although he has points in six consecutive games (2G-4A) since joining the line of Daoust and Aidan Tkachuk, who both assisted on the tally, in place of the injured Hudson Landmark.

Daoust (29) would make it 2-0 at 11:48, tucking the puck inside the right-side post after collecting it off the backboards. The Eagles’ leading scorer finished the night with one goal and two assists to improve to 73 points, putting the winger third overall in league scoring.

Brody Martin (5) got the Grizzlys on the board at 15:27.

Ryder Dembo (11) rifled home a power-play goal at 2:51 of the second period to extend his points streak to 12 games (9G-8A).

Owen Mastriaonni (11) then got help from Dembo and John Szabo to score a breakaway goal at 15:00 to give the Eagles a 4-1 lead. The assist helped Szabo extend his points streak to 14 games (9G-17A) which includes a third-period goal.

Calder Hutt (6) scored for Olds 6:45 into the third period to make it a 4-2 score – easily the most competitive clash so far this season with one more matchup to play.  It was the beginning of an extended period of pressure by the hometown team in the middle portion of the period that tested Eagles goaltender Alex Scheiwiller’s league-best puck stopping abilities.

Any ideas of a comeback were ended by Szabo (22) at 12:52 of the third period when he rifled home a shot cutting in off the left wing. The goal gives Szabo seven consecutive multi-point games.

Canmore outshot Olds 36-30. The goaltending battle featured Scheiwiller (21-13/2.94/.920) versus Cole Prelusky (5-5/2.92/.921).

Canmore went 1-for-6 on man-advantage opportunities and have scored at least one power-play goal in each of its last seven games with a league-topping 61 in 52 games this season. Olds’ power play was 0-for-1.

Olds has lost all five games versus Canmore this season and failed to score in two of those contests. The Eagles have outscored the Grizzlys 35-8.

Last season, Canmore lost out on first place by one point – 78 for the Canucks to 77 for the Eagles. The season came down to two heart-wrenching losses over the final three games. First it was surrendering a 3-0 lead at home and losing 4-3 in a shootout to the Camrose Kodiaks. Next it was a 6-5 road loss to the Drayton Valley Thunder, with the winning goal scored with 16 seconds remaining in regulation time after the Eagles had rallied back from a 5-1 third-period deficit. A 5-4 victory over Olds in the final regular-season game on the final Friday would give the Eagles a temporary hold of first but it would be taken back by the Calgary Canucks the following day with their 12-2 thumping of Olds.

OVERTIME:  Canmore is 16-5-1-1 in 2026. … Not dressed for the Eagles on Tuesday were Landmark, Will Lutic, Evan Markel, Miller Komarniski and Haruki Morikawa, with affiliate Nixon Chanski (Grande Peace Storm U18) filling out the defence corps. … The Eagles are always in need of volunteers to help with game day experiences whether you are new to the game or an avid hockey supporter, email info@canmoreeagles.com for more information on opportunities and perks that come with being part of the Game Day Crew. … Can’t get to a game in person, you can follow the Canmore Eagles at home or on the road with a Flohockey account. Go to flohockey.tv.