The first round of the playoffs is underway for the Drumheller Dragons as they take on the Canmore Eagles in the best of five series. The first two games of the series would be played in Canmore, starting Thursday night and proved to be the fast paced, high energy hockey fans were hoping for.
Game 1- Dragons Win 4-1
Thursday night the Dragons would take the win 4-1 in the first game, a 1-0 lead in the series.
The boys did what they needed to do as they established a strong fore check and pressured the Eagles into some costly errors. Canmore however would fight back and goaltender Johnny Hogue would be there to answer, stopping any momentum that the Eagles might get. Unfortunately the win would be bittersweet as the Dragons would lose one of their leading scorers and it is unknown the extent of his injury or his return.
Coach Curran,” I thought that our start was key and we did a good job in the first several minutes and were able to sustain some pressure on them. It is tough to lose a key player like Levi but that is nothing new to us these last couple months and hopefully he will be back soon. The team worked hard and we got what we came for. The first game.”
Game 2- Eagles Tie Series
The second game in the series would not go quite as well for the Dragons as the Eagles would win 5-1, tying the series. Drumheller may have gotten what they wanted in game 1 by taking the first game of the series but the Eagles are a strong team and came out with a lot of energy and would dictate the start of this game making it was clear that the battle was on.
Friday night’s game seem to be a mirror image of Thursday’s game, only this time in favour of Canmore.
The Eagles came out playing a very physical game controlling a lot of the play at times, but the Dragons did not run away and in a penalty filled game Canmore, with the best power play in the league would take advantage. Although the Dragons did not come out with the win they did not give up treating the Canmore crowd to some great playoff hockey with lots of action and lots of heat.
Coach Curran,” I expected that the Eagles would come out strong and they did. They deserved this win but at no point did our boys give in and I'm proud of them. We will have to learn from this game and acknowledge that we cannot be in the penalty box as much as we were tonight or we will be in a lot of trouble. Canmore is a good team and this will be a tough series, we need to get back to our game and play smart hockey.”
The two teams are tied at one apiece heading back to Drumheller to play game three on Sunday at 4pm.