PHOTO – Eagle defenceman Jakob Lavoie scored his first AJHL goal last night but it wasn’t enough as the Eagles lost 5-1 to the Oilers in Okotoks on Friday night. (Mark Neustaedter photo)
UPCOMING HOME GAMES
SATURDAY, FEB 15 – Okotoks Oilers – 7 PM
MONDAY, FEB 17 – Calgary Canucks – 2:30 PM
The Okotoks Oilers struck for three unanswered goals on just three first-period shots and went on to defeat the Canmore Eagles by a 5-1 score in Alberta Junior Hockey League action in Okotoks on Friday night.
The Oilers and Eagles will meet each other again in a rematch in Canmore on Saturday night (Feb. 15).
The Eagles actually outshot the Oilers 22-16 in Friday night’s game, but simply couldn’t recover from their shaky opening period.
The victory for the Oilers (32-17-5) was their fifth straight and keeps them in second-place in the AJHL Southern Division standings with 69 points. The Eagles (29-22-3) have now lost four games in a row and suddenly find themselves in fifth-place with 61 points. The Camrose Kodiaks jumped past the Eagles into fourth-place with 62 points as they defeated the Spruce Grove Saints 2-1 on Friday night. Both the Eagles and Kodiaks have six games remaining on their regular season schedules.
Jakob Lavoie had the lone Eagle goal, his first ever AJHL goal, while starting goaltender Ryan Ferguson took the loss stopping 11 of 16 Oiler shots to see his rookie record drop to 21-12-2.
“We made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes early in the game and it cost us big time”, said Eagle’s Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne. “ We got behind early and Okotoks is a team that doesn’t give up much and we didn’t capitalize on the few chances that we did generate. We need to be mentally stronger at this time of the season and it’s something we need to work on immediately.”