Soaring

Soaring
The Canmore Eagles are reaching heights the team has not enjoyed since the beginning of the 21st century.
A pair of home ice wins this past weekend has talons firmly grasping the No. 1 overall spot in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. Canmore defeated the Whitecourt Wolverines – the previous holders of the No. 1 rank until Canmore took over earlier this month – 3-1 on Friday (Jan. 24). The Eagles followed it up with a 5-2 victory over the Devon Xtreme on Saturday (Jan. 25).
The results give Canmore a 26-9-4-1 record for 57 points. That is three points better than the South Division second-place Calgary Canucks (25-11-2-2) and six better than the third-place Camrose Kodiaks (23-10-2-3). Whitecourt continues its dominance at the top of the North Division with a 25-10-2-2 record for 54 points.
Canmore finished first in the South Division on two occasions since the team’s inception in 1998. The team was known as the Bow Valley Eagles for its first three seasons but changed it to the Canmore Eagles at the start of the 2001-02 season. That season the team flew to the top of the league with a 47-14-3 record for 97 points. The following season, the Eagles went 43-19-2 for 88 points and a first place finish in the South Division but not overall. Unfortunately, the team was unable to parlay regular-season success into a playoff championship either of those years.
The Eagles have 14 regular-season games remaining, seven at home where the record shows 15-4-1-0 but they have not lost in regulation since Nov. 22, registering 11 wins and one overtime defeat, and seven away from home where they boast an 11-5-3-1 mark, although a mediocre 4-5-2-1 in their last 12 road games with the next four games all away from the Canmore Recreation Centre.
Canmore heads to Olds on Tuesday, Jan. 28, Camrose on Saturday, Feb. 1, Devon on Sunday, Feb. 2 and Drumheller on Feb. 7. The next home game is versus Fort McMurray Feb. 9, with a 2 p.m. start time.
Wolverines 1 at Eagles 3
Banff native Keifer Miller scored his first goal as a member of the Eagles, and it proved the game winner.
The 2005-born forward was in his third season with the Spruce Grove Saints when he decided his future would be better served closer to home, making the move in mid-January. Already committed to playing NCAA Div. 1 at College of the Holy Cross – the alma mater of former Eagles’ captain Logan Ferguson, who would go on to also captain the Crusaders – the newest Eagle scraped his way along the end boards to win the puck, came out on the left wing side and threaded a short side shot between arm and post of the Whitecourt goaltender.
The Wolverines took a 1-0 lead on a first-period goal by Kyle Tucker (his eighth of the season).
Casey Black scored his sixth goal of the season at 1:12 of the second period with an old-fashioned slap shot from the blue line.
A dominate Canmore performance in the second period was rewarded with two early third-period goals. Miller gave Canmore the lead at 4:06 followed by an insurance marker at 5:32 from the red hot Rhett Dekowny (18), another in-tight shot to the same spot as Miller’s goal.
Dekowny also registered an assist on Black’s goal for a two-point game.
Following Dekowny’s goal there were some loud, heated words thrown at the Canmore bench from Whitecourt head coach Shawn Martin, who looked in a mood to take on the whole Eagles’ squad for some inferred slight. It took a few minutes to cool everything down with both teams and coaches focusing on hockey for the remainder of what was a thrilling clash between two of the heavyweights in the league.
Canmore outshot Whitecourt 37-27 – 11-5 in the second period – with Alex Scheiwiller in goal for the Eagles and Elliott Pratt in goal for the Wolverines as Zac Onyskiw watched from the bench.
Just five minor penalties were called in the contest with four of those going to Whitecourt. Neither team capitalized on the power play.
Xtreme 2 at Eagles 5
Miller (2) was back on the scoresheet again on Saturday with the opening goal of the game just 2:13 after the initial face-off. However, he would need some help from his teammates, including first of the season goals by a pair of defencemen, to secure the team’s fifth consecutive victory.
Still in the first period, Owen Mastroianni (8) would tie the game followed Haruki Morikawa’s first goal of the season to give Canmore a 2-1 lead at the break.
Jaren Brinson then scored his first goal of the season 4:11 into the second period and it would hold up as the game winner. Kayden Rawji (14) would extend Canmore’s advantage to 4-1 in the period.
It would be almost his last contribution in this game, as the energetic, fan-favourite would earn a game misconduct for engaging in a heated discussion with Devon head coach Kelly Buchburger – who was also dismissed from the on-ice proceedings – as the teams headed to their dressing rooms at the conclusion of the period.
Aidan Tkachuk (6) rounded out Canmore’s scoring with a power-play goal inside the opening two minutes of the third period. Jake Sokolski’s first goal of the season, was an early third-period consolation goal for the visitors.
Canmore outshot Devon 38-21 with Hudson Sedo in goal for the Eagles and Logan Cunningham in goal for the Xtreme.
On the power play, Canmore was 2-for-6 with Devon 0-for-3.
The notebook
Cole Wadsworth suffered what appeared to be a serious shoulder injury when he collided with the boards in Friday’s game. The Penticton, B.C. native was to undergo a scan on Monday (Jan. 27). It is the same shoulder he injured in early November that kept the rookie forward sidelined for seven weeks.
Some numbers to ponder:
The Eagles are currently on a five-game winning streak;
The team is 8-1-1-0 in its last 10 contests dating back to Dec. 20, 2024;
The Eagles have averaged 4.5 goals per game in its eight January games which included scoring six goals on three occasions and seven goals in another victory, while giving up just 2.25 per game over that same span.
Dekwony is tied for second in AJHL scoring with 44 points (18G-23A) and now just nine back of league leader Calgary Canucks’ Jack Plandowski at 53 points (24G-29A).
Jones (16G-24A) and Rawji (14G-26A) are tied for fifth in league scoring with 40 points. Rawji holds a share of top spot when it comes to power-play points with 17 (5G-12A).
As for player streaks:
Overall, Dekowny has 12 points (5G-7A) from his last five games, Rawji has eight points (3G-5A) in his last five games, Black has eight points (3G-5A) in his last five games;
At home, with 18 points from their last nine games are Jones (8G-10A) and Dekowny (7G-11A), Rawji has 17 points (4G-13A) from the last nine, Black has eight points (2G-6A) in his last six. Jones’s totals include five assists in his last four games.
On the road, Look has four goals in his last four games.
Black is among the league leaders in defence scoring with his 19 points (6G-13A) from 17 games placing him seventh overall.
Morikawa’s goal was his first in 39 regular-season games dating back to Feb. 19, 2024.
Brinson’s goal was his first in 21 games with the Eagles. The big defenceman scored nine times in 202 WHL games.
Sedo has a 9-3-1 record with a second-best goals-against average at 2.30 per game and third-best .924 save percentage from his 13 appearances this season.
Scheiwiller has a 17-6-3 record with fifth-best 2.34 goals-against average and fourth-best save percentage at .923. His 17 wins is third most among all goaltenders.
While the Eagles have scored first in 25 of their 40 games and have an impressive 19-3-3-0 record in such games, the team has recently shown a penchant for coming from behind as well, winning three of four games in January in which they have conceded the first goal to the opposition.
Canmore’s special teams continue to shine with the fourth best power play at 20.2 per cent (37 power-play goal are the second most) and its penalty killing operating at third best 86.5 per cent (21 goals against are the third least among all 12 teams).
The top four teams in the AJHL are also the most disciplined teams in the league with Whitecourt averaging 12.3 penalty minutes per game, Calgary 14.3, Canmore 16.9 and Camrose 17.7.
Attendance at the two home games this past weekend was more than 850 fans per game pushing the season average to 740 per game, meaning its standing-room only at the Canmore Recreation Centre. Only five teams, all with much larger sized venues, are doing better than the Eagles in average attendance.
EAGLES NEST: Canmore Eagles tickets are available at canmoreeagles.ca/tickets. … If you can’t attend in person, you can watch Eagles’ games as well as the rest of the AJHL online, along with much more live and on demand hockey, through a FloSports subscription available at flohockey.tv. … The second Banff Fenlands Recreation Centre contest is Feb. 11 with the Lloydminster Bobcats the opposition. The attendance at November’s game in Banff – a 2-1 win by Canmore over Calgary – was 1,072.
Russ Ullyot