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Frustration boils over in Eagles game three loss to Kodiaks

The Eagles dominated even-strength play but penalties cost the hosts game three against the Kodiaks.

CANMORE – Frustration managed to catch up to the Eagles in game three as the hosts fell 6-1 to the Camrose Kodiaks at the Canmore rec centre.

“It was a frustrating game for our guys. Our guys are frustrated. We’ve played three hard games and they’re as confused as I am – what they can do and what they can’t do. What’s illegal and what’s not and that’s confusing,” said Eagles head coach Andrew Milne in reference to the consistency of penalties called in the game.

“You look at how hard they’ve played and they are confused. I feel sorry for them. Games in the playoffs are wins and losses not scores. Scores are irrelevant, either you win or you lose. Tonight we lost – we will move on.”

The Kodiaks now lead the best-of-seven series 2-1.

Despite controlling much of the play in the opening half of the first period the Eagles surrendered the first goal of game three just before the 13-minute mark.

The Kodiaks’ Lynden Grandberg snapped a shot over the left shoulder of the Eagles’ goaltender Devin Chapman, which was only the second shot of the game for the visitors. The Eagles failed to find an answer in the first period but managed to rally around a five-on-three penalty kill. Unfortunately for the Eagles, Zach Carlson was assessed a two-and-a-ten for checking from behind at the end of the first frame.

Lane Paddison was called upon to fill in for the missing Carlson, and Milne was pleased with his performance. He said despite Paddison missing most of the second half of the regular season due to a broken foot he hasn’t skipped a beat since his return.

Canmore managed to control most of the even-strength play, peppering the Kodiaks goaltender Griffin Bowerman, nearly doubling up on the Kodiaks’ shot attempts, but couldn’t find a way through the Calgary-native.

With a minute and a half left in the second period, the Canmore rec centre saw cheers quickly turn to boos, when the referees overturned what would have been Alex Young’s fourth of the series. The goal was called back as Young was penalized for being an ineligible player.

“I was hit in the corner and my chin strap came undone and the ref was yelling at me to do it up. I was still following the play and couldn’t get it done up again, and when the puck came my way I was able to put it in the back of the net. Unfortunately, it was called back and I got a penalty for it,” said Young.

With the Eagles top scorer in the box, defenceman Zach Cunningham then took a penalty giving the Kodiaks a two-man advantage.

On the ensuing five-on-three Camrose’s Damon Zimmer was able to spot a rebound in the slot doubling up on the visitors lead heading into the third period.

“Getting that goal called off really changes the mood on the bench… after that goal the game could have gone either way,” said defenceman Zach Cunningham.
The disallowed goal proved to be the turning point in the contest as the Kodiaks opened up the third period with two goals giving the fourth seed in the south a 4-0 lead.

Eagle's forward Mitchell Watson would go on to add a consolation goal, but Camrose would go on to add two more before the final whistle.

“We have to let our coaches worry about the refs and we need to stay out of the box, because five-on-five I think we dominated the game,” said Cunningham.
Milne echoed his defenceman’s sentiment.

“The analytics aren’t going to lie. You know five-on-five we are successful so we have to figure a way to stay out of the penalty box and something is going to go our way.”

The rivals will return to the Canmore Rec centre on Thursday (March 5) evening for game four. Puck drop is 7 p.m.

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