Playoff Preview
For only the fourth time in 10 years, the Canmore Eagles and the Drumheller Dragons are set to meet in the Alberta Junior Hockey League playoffs.
It certainly looks like Drumheller is the prohibitive favourite in the series, finishing third in the South Division with a 33-21-4-2 record for 72 points. The Dragons were 20 points better than Canmore at 24-32-2-2 for 52 points. The Dragons counted 229 goals compared to the Eagles 181, while on defence it was 201 and 203 against respectively.
However, you should not read too much into the overall records. Let’s take a little deeper dive into this series.
Leading Canmore’s offence is Vincent Scott who had 26 goals and 67 points this campaign. Drumheller’s top point collector is Ty Daneault with 37 goals and 65 points. The two players were 13th and 14th respectively in league scoring.
Canmore relied on a goaltending tandem this season, with Andreai Proctor-Ramirez appearing in 35 games and Matthew Malin in 33 games. Proctor-Ramirez finished the season with 13 wins, a .904 save percentage and a 3.58 goals-against average. Malin also had 13 wins to go with numbers of .902/ 3.48. The goaltenders combined for three shutouts. Drumheller relied on Garrett Fuller this season, with a revolving door behind him. Fuller posted 22 wins with .892/ 3.08 and two shutouts in 42 games. His backup as the playoffs begin is Matthew Panghli, who appeared in just one game this season.
When it comes to special team’s play, expect it to play a large role in a series featuring two of most penalized teams in the league this season. Drumheller comes in at 1,299 penalty minutes, second most in the league, while Canmore accumulated 1,227 minutes, fourth most in the league.
In physical play, three of the top six most penalized players in the league this season are in this series: Drumheller’s Adam Raesler accumulated 175 penalty minutes this season, including 51 in five games against the Eagles; While from Canmore, Brody Tallman at 169, Kayden Rawji at 156 and Riley Dekowny at 149 round out the players near the top of the penalty count.
So, if it comes down to the power play, Canmore had the most power-play opportunities this season by a wide margin but struggled for goals finishing with 56 on 364 chances for a 15.4 percentage – compare that with the league-leading Brooks Bandits, who had 105 goals on 305 chances – second most in the league – for a 34.4 percentage. Drumheller had 54 goals on 259 chances for a 20.8 percentage.
In penalty killing, Canmore was 74.8 per cent on 294 situations and Drumheller was 75.9 per cent on 282 situations.
Season series
Canmore won five of the six regular-season meetings with Drumheller, and the Eagles outscored the Dragons 26-21. Each team posted eight goals in a single game: The Eagles won 8-3 on Oct. 7 and the Dragons won 8-0 on Jan. 28. Their final meeting was a 3-2 Eagles win on Feb. 24.
Drumheller’s Vann Yuhas led all scorers through the six games with three goals and six assists for nine points. The top Canmore player was Rhett Dekowny with two goals and six assists for eight points – with five of those points (two goals and three assists) coming in an 8-3 victory on Oct. 7.
Denault led all goal scorers with five goals in five games. For Canmore, three players at three goals were tops for the team: Scott, Kyle Young and Riley Dekowny.
Fuller had the distinction of appearing in all six games, although the Drumheller goaltender started and finished only two of them: the shutout victory and Feb. 24 loss.
While for Canmore, goaltenders Proctor-Ramirez and Malin each had three complete games. Proctor-Ramirez was particularly impressive, winning all three of his starts posting a .939 save percentage and a 2.27 goals-against average.
Each team’s power play converted on 25 per cent of their opportunities, with the Eagles having nine goals on 36 chances and the Dragons scoring eight on 32 chances.
Canmore has also had a major roster boost in the final weeks of the season with stalwart defenceman Finn McLaughlin returning from a broken wrist and forward Cole Wirun returning from a broken femur suffered in October. The team also signed prized Alberta major midget standout Logan Ziegler.
All three of those players are rookies. If experience comes into play, Canmore has 14 rookies this season compared to seven for Drumheller. Don’t expect all them to be playing in this series, although a significant portion of the Eagles game-day roster will be first-year junior A players.
Playoff history
As previously noted, these two teams have locked up three previous times in the last 10 playoff tournaments, with Canmore winning the two most recent clashes.
In 2019, Canmore defeated Drumheller in five games in a memorable series. Similar to this season, the Dragons (37-19-4-0) finished third and the Eagles (30-25-4-0) sixth with 13 points separating the two teams.
In 2016, Canmore (26-27-6-1) again defeated Drumheller (25-29-3-3) in five games. Just three points separated the teams over the regular season, with Eagles fourth and Dragons fifth.
Canmore would then go on to face Brooks in the second round both years, getting swept in both series.
In 2014, the two teams met in the second round of the playoffs with third-place Drumheller (35-20-3-2) defeated fifth-place Canmore (32-25-0-3) in five games. The Dragons would go on to upset Brooks in the South Final to reach the AJHL Final, but lost out to the Spruce Grove Saints in four games.
So, now you about as well informed about these two rivals as possible – there are always locker-room secrets we’re not privy too – as they prepare for the start of this series.
Canmore will open the best-of-seven series in Drumheller, with games at the Drumheller Memorial Arena on Friday (March 10) and Saturday (March 11). The series switches to the Canmore Recreation Centre on Tuesday (March 14) and Wednesday (March 15). If necessary, games are also set for Friday (March 17) in Drumheller, Sunday (March 19) in Canmore, and Tuesday (March 21) in Drumheller. Games times are 7 p.m. except for March 19 which will feature a 6 p.m. start.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Game Scores
Sept. 16, 2022 – Dragons 4 at Eagles 5 (SO)
Oct. 7, 2022 – Dragons 3 at Eagles 8
Dec. 3, 2022 – Eagles 6 at Dragons 3
Dec. 21, 2022 – Dragons 1 at Eagles 5
Jan. 28, 2023 – Eagles 0 at Dragons 8
Feb. 24, 2023 – Eagles 3 at Dragons 2
Period Scoring
Drumheller 5 8 8 — 21
Canmore 9 10 7 — 26
Canmore Eagles GP G A PTS PIM PP(G-A) SH(G-A)
9 Rhett Dekowny 6 2 6 8 4 0-2 0-0
11 Vincent Scott 6 3 3 6 0 2-1 0-0
12 Kyle Young 5 3 2 5 4 1-1 0-0
20 Riley Dekowny 6 3 2 5 12 0-1 0-0
21 Hunter Burgeson 4 2 3 5 2 2-0 0-0
2 Emanuel Hudson 4 0 5 5 8 0-2 0-0
22 Reed Jacobson 5 2 2 4 2 1-1 0-0
8 Finn McLaughlin 5 1 3 4 2 0-2 0-0
26 Casey Black 6 1 3 4 2 1-0 0-0
28 Brody Mortenson 6 0 4 4 15 0-0 0-0
16 Tyler Loughman 6 1 2 3 31 0-0 0-0
23 Cole Wirun 2 0 3 3 0 0-1 0-0
17 Kayden Smith 5 0 3 3 6 0-3 0-0
24 Brody Tallman 4 1 0 1 8 0-0 0-0
27 Owen Jones 5 1 0 1 0 1-0 0-0
14 Logan Ziegler 1 0 1 1 0 0-1 0-0
7 Kai Billey 4 0 1 1 2 0-0 0-0
13 Nick Anisimovicz 1 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
29 Ryan Nolan 5 0 2 2 2 0-1 0-0
1 Matthew Malin 3 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
72 Andr. Proctor-Ramirez 3 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
15 Luke Chase 4 0 0 0 4 0-0 0-0
19 Kayden Rawji 4 0 0 0 16 0-0 0-0
1 Brenner Fyfe 0 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
4 Josh Missfeldt 0 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
Not with club/ Inactive
Mason Bueckert 2 2 1 3 0 1-0 0-0
Isaac Suppin 1 1 0 1 0 0-0 0-0
Nathan Ellis 2 1 0 1 0 0-0 0-0
Dylan Bidyk 1 0 1 1 0 0-0 0-0
Jaxson Doyle 1 0 0 0 2 0-0 0-0
Austin Lusok 1 0 0 0 2 0-0 0-0
Max Monette 1 0 0 0 19 0-0 0-0
Tanner Gould 2 0 0 0 19 0-0 0-0
Goalie (W-L-OL-SL) GP MP SA Pct. GA Avg SO Andr. Proctor-Ramirez (3-0-0-0) 3 185:00 108 .939 7 2.27 0
Matthew Malin (2-1-0-0) 3 180:00 136 .907 14 4.67 0
Brenner Fyfe (0-0-0-0) 0 0 0 .000 0 0.00 0
Canmore Special Teams: Power Play 9-36/ 25%; Penalty Kill 24-32/ 75%
Drumheller Dragons GP G A PTS PIM PP(G-A) SH(G-A)
15 Vann Yuhas 6 3 6 9 2 1-3 0-0
16 Ty Daneault 5 5 1 6 16 1-1 0-0
23 Sam Simard 4 2 3 5 4 1-1 0-0
33 Dylan Glinski 6 3 1 4 4 1-0 0-0
37 Coy Pighin 4 1 3 4 2 0-1 0-0
10 Adam Raesler 5 0 4 4 51 1-3 0-0
17 Wil Christian 5 2 1 3 2 0-0 0-0
3 Tate Yule 6 1 2 3 12 0-0 0-0
8 Easton Adrian 5 0 2 2 19 0-2 0-0
18 Kai Matthew 5 0 2 2 8 0-0 0-0
26 Connor Poffenroth 6 0 2 2 2 0-1 0-0
11 Noah Danielson 3 1 0 1 2 1-0 0-0
14 Jacob Goudreau 5 1 0 1 0 1-0 0-0
4 Cyle Clayton 3 0 1 1 0 0-0 0-0
27 Ryan Henderson 5 0 1 1 12 0-0 0-0
19 Ty Whitford 5 0 1 1 25 0-0 0-0
28 Ben Christian 6 0 1 1 17 0-0 0-0
9 Caleb Willms 2 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
12 Keegan Beagle 4 0 0 0 2 0-0 0-0
2 Ethan Casper 4 0 0 0 8 0-0 0-0
30 Garrett Fuller 6 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
35 Manny Panghli 0 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
Not with club/ Inactive
Isaiah Peters 1 1 0 1 0 1-0 0-0
Hayden Prosofsky 2 0 1 1 0 0-0 0-0
Tanner Dawkins 3 0 1 1 2 0-0 0-0
Ryan Duguay 1 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
Caden Heins 1 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
Deegan Kinniburgh 1 0 0 0 2 0-0 0-0
Connor Radke 1 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
Walker Overwater 1 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
Wyatt Yule 1 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
Liam Choquette 2 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
William Dyke 2 0 0 0 0 0-0 0-0
Goalie (W-L-OL-SL) GP MP SA Pct. GA Avg. SO
Garrett Fuller (1-1-0-0) 6 248:00 120 .876 17 4.11 1
Manny Panghli 0 00:00 0 .000 0 0.00 0
Drumheller Special Teams: Power Play 8-32/ 25%; Penalty Kill 27-36/ 75%