“It’s a long season and every team goes through funks,” said Head Coach Andrew Milne. It is the case for the Canmore Eagles right now. After going 9-4-3 in their first 15 games of the regular season, the Eagles have hit a rough patch, having dropped their last 4 games, including a 6-3 loss to the visiting Calgary Mustangs Tuesday night in front of 470 fans at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
The tough streak has also seen the Eagles take a bit of a slide in the standings, as the Eagles currently sit in 5th Place in the tight AJHL South division with a record of 9-7-3 for 21 points. The Eagles are 2 points back of Okotoks for 3rd Place, 1 point back of Camrose for 4th Place and 2 points up on the Mustangs. The Eagles were in 3rd Place for all of October.
“We worked hard, but we were not smart enough and mature enough,” says Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne regarding Tuesday night’s contest. Milne called out his leadership group. He says that they need to do a much a better job. He also said in the Postgame comments that the team needs to be better from top to bottom. “Our goalies need to make timely saves, Defencemen need to move the puck and get it to our Forwards and our Forwards need to score,” said Milne.
After a scoreless 1st period, the 2 teams exchanged goals in the middle frame to have the game tied 3-3 heading into the 3rd period. The Mustangs scored 3 unanswered goals in the final frame, including an empty goal to seal the win.
The Eagles received goals from Alex Young (11), Zach Carlson with his 1st AJHL goal and Quinton Ong (7). Defenceman Mark Drohan picked up a pair of assists and was named the Eagles’ Player of the Game.
Thomas Davis was the starting goalie and he made 20 saves on 25 shots. The Eagles outshot the Mustangs 34-25.
The Eagles will look to get back in the win column, as they head on the road for a 3-game in 3 days road trip. They will take on the Grande Prairie Storm (10-8-2) on Friday night, the Whitecourt Wolverines (10-10) on Saturday night and the Drayton Valley Thunder (6-14-1) on Sunday afternoon.
The Eagles’ next home game is on Saturday, November 17 as they will host the Calgary Canucks (2-17-1).
EAGLES’ FUN FACTS:
– It was the Calgary Mustangs’ 1st win at the Canmore Recreation Centre since February 14 2015. The Eagles had won the previous 9 meetings between the 2 teams at the CRC.
– Congratulations to Max Giangualano on being named the 106.5 Mountain FM Player of the Month of October. Max had 6 goals and 13 points in 10 games in the month of October.