The Canmore Eagles five-game Alberta Junior Hockey League winning streak came to a screeching halt last night as the visiting Whitecourt Wolverines put on a dominating performance to down the Eagles 5-1 before 495 fans at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
The Wolverines, winners of two previous games with the Eagles this season, scored three unanswered goals in just under three minutes early in the second period to take a commanding 4-1 lead and never looked back. Whitecourt outshot Canmore 34-22 on the night, including a wide 17-3 margin in the second period.
The loss drops the Eagle’s record to 11-11-1, while the Wolverines improved to 13-8-2.
Nikolas Kozman had the lone Eagle goal, his 3rd of the season, and was named the Eagles “Star of Game”. Despite the score, Eagle netminder Ryan Ferguson had a strong game but saw his record drop to 7-5.
“We simply turned the puck over too many times tonight and you can’t do that against a team like Whitecourt,” said Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne. “We needed to make smarter decisions with the puck in the neutral zone. We received a tough lesson tonight. I think our guys were a little cocky and thought we could win based on our recent history and reputation. We will re-group and get ready to go on Saturday night as I know our players were not pleased with both the result, and with the effort that they showed the fans tonight.”
The Eagles will get back in action on Saturday night (Nov. 9) when they host the visiting Calgary Mustangs at 7 PM. The Mustangs (11-9-2) sit in fourth-place in the AJHL Southern Division standings, one point ahead of the fifth-place Eagles, and come to Canmore riding their own four-game winning streak.
