PHOTO: Camrose Kodiak goaltender Devin McDonald shut-out the Canmore Eagles 2-0 in Sunday's game in Camrose.
The Canmore Eagles played three very difficult road games in two and half days over the weekend and came away with three very different results.
In Friday night’s opener in Bonnyville, the Eagles dug deep and came back to register a 4-3 overtime shoot-out victory. In Saturday night’s game in Lloydminster, the Eagles got bombed 9-0 by the Bobcats and in Sunday afternoon's game in Camrose, the Eagles put up a good fight only to see the Kodiaks score two unanswered goals in the third period to register a 2-0 victory.
As a result, the Eagles now sport a 23-27-2 record and currently occupy sixth-place in the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Southern Division. With eight games left in their regular season schedule, the Eagles are now four points back of the fifth-place Olds Grizzlys, but lead the seventh-place Calgary Canucks by 10 points.
“Emotionally, this weekend certainly had it all,” said Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne, whose team is now finished with interlocking games against the Northern Division. “We went from a gritty character win on Friday night, to a real low on Saturday night, and then responded with a good effort and game on Sunday. We took it one game at a time and didn’t deviate from our plan. Three games in two and half days to these three rinks is a very difficult task for anyone and we hung in there.
“Defenceman Brayden Biccum and Jakob Lavoie had great weekends for us as they played a lot of minutes and blocked a ton of shots. Goaltender Ryan Ferguson was also back to his old self and was very calm and confident in our net.”
Unfortunately for the Eagles, the immediate road ahead is still a difficult one as they will travel to Brooks on Wednesday night to take on the Bandits and then travel to Drumheller on Friday night for a date with the Dragons.
The Brooks Bandits currently sit in second-place in the AJHL Southern Division standings with 76 points and a record of 37-13-2. The Bandits have already defeated the Eagles four times this season winning 3-2 (Oct. 10) and 7-2 (Nov. 29) in Canmore, and 5-4 (Oct. 4) and 7-5 in Brooks on Oct. 4 and Jan. 14 respectively
The Drumheller Dragons currently sit in fourth-place in the AJHL Southern Division standings with 63 points and a record of 28-17-7. The Eagles defeated the Dragons 2-1 in their first meeting of the year back on Sept. 30 in Canmore, but have dropped their last three encounters losing 1-0 (Oct. 17), 3-1 (Dec. 16) and 3-2 (Jan. 6).
The Eagles will then wrap up their regular season schedule by playing five of the last six games on home ice. The Eagles next home game will be Saturday, Feb. 14 when they will host the Calgary Mustangs.