The Drumheller Dragons are tightening their hold on their playoff series versus the Canmore Eagles.
On the evening of Thursday, March 7, the Dragons gave the Eagles a 4-0 thrashing.
Unlike the first game of the series, this game started off in the Dragons favour. At only 1:39 into the game, Cavin Leth, taking a pass from Tyler Kerner, used his speed to beat the Eagles defence, charged at the net, and tucked the puck in the back of the net for a 1-0 Dragons lead.
The Dragons ran into penalty trouble starting at the 14:41 mark into the first period, which continued for most of the second period as well.
Bryton Mills and Brad Deagle were handed tripping and slashing penalties less than a minute apart, which gave the Eagles a two man advantage. The Dragons kept the Eagles at bay.
Twenty-three seconds into the second period, Dakota Zaharichuk was given a game misconduct and a five minute boarding penalty. Just under a minute later, Leth joined him in the box with a cross-checking penalty. The Eagles had another golden opportunity to score on the two man advantage, but couldn’t break through the solid defence and goaltending of the Dragons.
When Leth was released, the Dragons still had to fight through Zaharichuk’s penalties and were still short-handed.
However, the Dragons were dealt another blow when Brennan Baxandall was given two minutes for elbowing at 4:52 and Brad Deagle two minutes for roughing soon after. The Dragons were back to being down two players.
Fans were on the edges of their seats as the Dragons blocked shots left, right, and centre, and Adam Beukeboom held firm in net.
After over seven minutes of penalties, almost five of which were at a two man disadvantage, the Dragons finally were back at full strength.
The Dragons held on to their tenuous 1-0 lead at the end of the second period, but would go on to utterly dominate the third.
Mitchell Gartner put the Dragons up by two on a slick backhand shot at 1:46 into the third. Ryan Bloom went top shelf four minutes later, while the Dragons had a power play of their own, to increase the lead to three.
Throughout the third, the Dragons continued to fight with penalties, but the penalty kill squad kept the Dragons firmly ahead.
Bryton Mills gave the Dragons their fourth goal of the night at 11:05 on the power play
In the end, it was the Dragons penalty killing squad and Beukeboom who won the game. Out of 10 power plays for the Eagles, with roughly seven minutes of two man advantage, the Eagles went scoreless. Beukeboom earned his first playoff shutout of his AJHL career and much deserved star of the game for the Dragons.
The Dragons power play was effective, going two for five during the night.
The Dragons currently lead the best of five series 2-0. One more win by the Dragons would earn them a spot in the second round of playoffs.
The two teams meet again for game three, and perhaps the final game of the series, on Saturday, March 9 at the Canmore Recreation Centre. The game starts at 7 p.m.
