It took a fill the net, drop the gloves kind of night, but the Canmore Eagles clinched home ice advantage in the first round of the AJHL playoffs with an 8-5 win over the Olds Grizzlys, Tuesday (March 1) at the Canmore Rec Centre.
The Eagles are now guaranteed home ice against the Drumheller Dragons next week. The home club has a 26-27-6 record for 58 points, while the Dragons are stuck at 53.
Logan Ferguson scored a hat trick, Jonas Gordan had a goal and two assists, and Coy Prevost scored twice to lead the lopsided attack against the hapless Grizzlys, who have now lost 16 games in a row.
“Our guys came out hard. They came with purpose, played pretty well and put us in a position to be successful. We gave up five goals, but we also put a lot of guys in new situations. We didn’t play our top group a lot and that’s a good thing,” said head coach and general manager Andrew Milne.
The Eagles struck early and often, staking out a 4-1 lead in the first period after Ferguson scored twice and Kurt Hildebrand and Brett Radford scored singles. In the second period, Ferguson completed his hat trick before Prevost scored twice and Gordan added his single to make it 8-3.
Up by five goals, mayhem broke out with three minutes remaining in the second, when Colby Livingstone collided with Olds goaltender Kurtis Chapman. Although the hit looked innocuous, Chapman dropped to the ice in a heap, and appeared to knock his head against the ice. He was removed from the arena on a stretcher.
The Grizzlys did not take kindly to the hit, and three fights quickly broke out, with Eagles Livingstone, Jake Ashton and Cole Noble all dropping the gloves.
In the third period, the Grizzlys had a string of power plays and notched two goals from their high-powered top line, but never really threatened the Eagles.
“When you play the right way and you get rewarded, you want to play the right way again,” Milne said.
Ryan Bontorin got the win in goal for the Eagles, and was tested often in the third period.
At press time, the AJHL had yet to assess any suspensions from the second period fights. Ashton could face suspension, since it’s his second fight of the year, and the league will determine if any of the Eagles players joined the fray late, which could also result in suspension.
The Eagles also had five regulars out of the lineup against Olds, including captain Jakob Lavoie, Brayden Biccum, Ryley Risling and Kyle Pauls and Milne still isn’t sure who will start in the final game of the season, also against Drumheller.
“It’s something we’ll address internally. We had a lot of guys not playing tonight and some possibly facing suspensions, so we’ll have to re-evaluate what that looks like. Our number one goal is game one of the playoffs and to be prepared for game one. If that means we sit guys, we sit them. If we play, we play them,” Milne said.
For the past month, Milne has said Risling, Pauls and Biccum are close to returning, and repeated the claim on Tuesday.
