MALIN BRILLIANT AS THE EAGLES KNOCK OFF THE DRAGONS AGAIN
Playing three games in three days is never easy in the game of Hockey. It is also not easy to win that third game. But that certainly did not bother the Canmore Eagles yesterday. After splitting their first two games of the weekend road trip, the Eagles made a stop in the badlands of Drumheller for a rematch against a Dragons team they had defeated five days prior. Despite being outshot by a 59-20 margin, the Eagles managed to hang around and once again defeat the Dragons 3-2 in a shootout to pick up four out of a possible six points on the road trip.
“Our guys were good again tonight. We asked a lot of these guys this weekend. With only 19 players available we needed all players to be good and we got that. It”™s a hard weekend and the character came through” says Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne.
It was the Dragons who got the board first on a goal from Sam Simard at 9:04 of the first period. It was the lone goal of the opening frame. In the second period, the Eagles tied the game 2:02 into the frame on a goal from Carter Myrol. Kyle Young and Nathan Ellis got the assists. Then at 8:08, it was Myrol again to give the Eagles the lead with a power play goal, his ninth of the campaign. Drawing the assists were Vinny Scott and Emanual Hudson. However, before the end of the period, the Dragons also took advantage of a power play to tie the game as Carter Belitski found the back of the net.
In the third period, the Dragons outshot the Eagles 22-4, but Eagles netminder Matthew Malin stood tall and stopped all 22 shots to force Overtime.
5 minutes of 3-on-3 overtime did not determine a winner, so a shootout was needed. It took five rounds to determine a winner and it was Eagles Defenceman Drae Gardiner who scored the lone goal in the shootout to give the Eagles the win.
Malin who got the start after Andrei Proctor-Ramirez was between the pipes in the first two games was sensational as he stopped 57 of the 59 shots he faced and he also denied all five Dragons”™ shooters in the Shootout.
“It”™s a coaches dream to have 2 goalies that have the ability to steal games and we certainly saw that this weekend” says Coach Milne.
Before playing in front of the hometown fans again, the Eagles have one more road game to play and it is a big one. On Tuesday night, the Eagles travel to Okotoks to take on the Oilers. The Eagles (18-23-7, 43 pts) trail the Oilers (23-20-2, 48 pts) by 5 points for 4th place in the AJHL South Division, which is the final spot to get home ice for the opening round of the playoffs.
After that game, the Eagles will start a 5-game home stand (their longest of the season) starting with a date with the Olds Grizzlys (5-35-5, 15 pts) on Friday night at 7 pm.
EAGLES NEST: – The weekend road trip was the Eagles”™ last trip visiting North Division teams this season. It was also the last time that the Eagles played 3 game in 3 days stint.
– The Eagles have only 12 games left to play in the regular season, including 7 at the Canmore Recreation Centre.