For two AJHL teams that don’t face each other often, there’s no love lost between the Canmore Eagles and the Lloydminster Bobcats.
Eschewing all pretenses of Christmas spirit, the Eagles downed the Bobcats 5-3 in a bruising, bloody game in which cheap shots and face washes were the only form of giving occurring around the rink.
Eagle Jordan Revie scored the winner on a great pass from Nils Moser, while Jeremy Margeson picked up a pair of assists before he was carted off the ice with an injured shoulder. Defenceman Jakob Lavoie was also lost to an injured shoulder.
Coach Andrew Milne said the Eagles were feeling ornery after Friday’s (Dec. 21) 3-2 shootout loss to Camrose, while Lloydminster was in no mood to play nice.
“They played hard. They came hard after us. I don’t think our guys were too pleased after (Friday) night’s game,” Milne said. “That’s a style of game they play in the north. We’re used to that. We like to play a speed game. They like to clog it up and hack and whack. At the end of the day, we were concerned about the two points.”
Eagles defenceman Trey Phillips opened scoring with his team leading 16th goal of the year with less than three minutes remaining in the first period. Revie and Margeson picked up the helpers.
Lane Olson gave the Eagles a two-goal lead with a wicked wrist shot after some hard work by his linemates, and the home team appeared in control. Kurt Hildebrand and Jeremy Gordon drew assists.
In staging a comeback, the Bobcats capitalized on brutal turnovers by Tyler Arneson and Ashton McLeod, which gave Lloydminster forward Troy Rapuano two goals two minutes apart in the second period.
Eagle Kurt Hildebrand responded less than a minute later with one of the best goals of the year. The rookie forward picked up a nice feed from Margeson at the side of the net and embarrassed a Bobcat defender with an incredible deke before firing the puck into the top of the net from an impossible angle. That gave the Eagles a 3-2 lead.
The Bobcats netted their third goal half-way through the third period thanks to a questionable net-crashing number by Cole Porter that took Eagles goaltender Ryan Ferguson out of the play. But Revie ensured the lead was short lived when he fired a perfect shot from the wing that found the back of the net. Joe Serpico added the insurance marker with 43 seconds left in the game, and was subsequently run into the boards for his efforts.
Milne praised his pluggers for holding onto the lead and battling against the big, tough northern squad.
“I thought we had depth contributing. The Olson line was outstanding and they gave us a chance to win, while Lavoie played like a warrior while he was out there,” Milne said.
The Eagles now have a week off until their next home game on Jan. 2 against the Drumheller Dragons.
