Shots whistled furiously on net against the Camrose Kodiaks in the second of back-to-back games at Alex Kaleta Arena last weekend, but the scoreboard told a different story for the Canmore Eagles.
A two-game stint quickly turned into a two-game skid for the Eagles as they were defeated by the Kodiaks 7-4 on Friday (Oct. 31) and 5-2 on Saturday (Nov. 1), including a six-goal, double hat trick performance by Kodiaks forward Jody Sick.
The losses put the Eagles two games under the .500 mark after 20 games (9-11) this season.
Andrew Milne, head coach and general manager, said it’s tough to play from behind against a team like the Kodiaks. The Eagles surrendered the first three goals in Friday’s game, and five consecutive the next night.
In Saturday’s loss, the Eagles opened scoring and bombarded Kodiaks goalie Patrick Gora with 18 shots to six in the first period. However, it was the Kodiaks that took a 2-1 lead into the intermission. Milne said missing out on chances, such as on the power play, was costly for his team.
“I think we probably could have had a pretty good lead going into the first period intermission … but not capitalizing on opportunities, that hurt us in the long run,” he said. “We could have taken control after one and we didn’t. As the game wore on our guys got more and more tired and that cost us.”
In the second and third periods, the Kodiaks took over the game led by Sick who scored three consecutive goals on the Eagles’ Ryan Ferguson. It was Sick’s second hat trick in as many games. A late short-handed goal by Camrose in the third showed the type of luck, or lack thereof, the Eagles had on the night in its special teams, going 1-6 on the PP.
A power play marker from Eagles D-man Brett Schimmel was too little too late with less than five minutes remaining in the game.
Despite dropping the pair, Milne took moral victories away from the weekend such as scoring four goals in the first game and producing an onslaught of shots the following night.
“We had chances to win. We had chances to be better and dominate, offensively, whereas (they’re) a team that does really good defensively, I think that’s a strong positive,” Milne said.
The Eagles will head straight into a three-game road trip this weekend, starting with the Whitecourt Wolverines (7-12) on Friday (Nov. 7).
The three games in three days are going to be a challenge, said Milne, and he is optimistic with his up and down squad on the road.
“I am confident in the direction we’re going, (and) I think we’ll get out of this funk,” he said.
The Eagles next home game is Wednesday (Nov. 12) at 7 p.m. against the Calgary Canucks in Banff at the Fenlands.
