CANMORE – Matthew Malin made 31 saves and the Canmore Eagles took a commanding 2-0 lead Friday (March 8) at the Canmore Recreation Centre in their play-in series against the Fort McMurray Oil Barons.
Forward Tyler Loughman scored twice for the local Junior A club and Logan Ziegler and Zach Coutu each found the back of the net.
The Eagles can close out the best-of-five series Sunday (March 10) in Fort McMurray. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m.
The winner of the series advances to the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) playoffs March 15.
If necessary, Game 4 is in Fort McMurray at 7:30 p.m. on Monday (March 11) and Game 5 would be Wednesday (March 13) in Canmore.
The Eagles have absolutely bombarded the Oil Barons’ Gage Stewart with shots in the first two games, peppering the netminder with 57 shots-on-goal in Game 1 and 42 in Game 2.
On the opposite end, Malin has made 47 out of 48 saves in the series.
Why an AJHL Play-In is happening
Following a mass exodus of five teams from the AJHL earlier this year to the BCHL, the league restructured its schedules for the regular season and playoffs, including a best of five play-in tournament between the bottom six teams (No. 6-11).
The top five teams have already made the playoffs and will be played between the top eight teams.
Those teams are the Whitecourt Wolverines (1), Lloydminster Bobcats (2), Calgary Canucks (3), Bonnyville Pontiacs (4), and Drumheller Dragons (5).
