The Canmore Eagles had their four-game winning streak snapped last night as they lost 3-1 to the Spruce Grove Saints in an Alberta Junior Hockey League game played in Spruce Grove before 465 fans.
With the victory, the Saints remain undefeated on home-ice this season and improved their overall record to 29-5-1. With the loss, the Eagle’s record fell to 19-14-2.
After a scoreless first period, the Saints took a 1-0 lead at the 11:16 mark of the second period on a goal from Dylan Hollman. After posting two consecutive shut-outs in their previous two games, it was the first goal surrendered by the Eagles in over 201 minutes of action.
Nicolas Correale put the Saints up 2-0 early in the third period, before Luke Simpson pulled the Eagles to within one goal scoring his 10th of the season on the powerplay at the 8:12 mark.
With the Eagles pressing for the equalizer on the powerplay, Spruce Grove put the game away with a short-handed marker at the 11:33 mark of the third period. It was the seventh time the Eagles have given up a short-handed goal this season.
Eagle rookie netminder Ryan Ferguson, who went an amazing 141 minutes without allowing a goal, took the loss and saw his record drop to 12-7-1. Canmore was outshot 35-26 on the night.
“We played a good hockey game tonight against a very good hockey club,” said Eagle’s Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne of the nation’s top-ranked Saints. “We made three mistakes and they ended up in the back of our net. We certainly had our chances to score, but just failed to capitalize. You also have to give their goalie (Tanner McCorriston) some credit as he made some very timely saves for them. ”
Canmore will continue their current three game road trip tonight with a game in Sherwood Park against the Crusaders (15-18-2) and will wrap up it up with a Sunday afternoon tilt in Olds against the always physical Grizzlies (15-15-6).