Our Drumheller Dragons needed to win to force game five in their AJHL South Division Final against the Canmore Eagles.
They gave everything they could but just came up short in overtime. Canmore came out strong to start the game and Drumheller goaltender Sean Cootes had to make some spectacular saves to keep the game tied 0-0 after one period.
The Dragons would open the scoring in the second with Jase Johnstone scoring his 6th of the post season, assisted by Tristan Payne and Jensen Marsh, on the powerplay at 6:24. Canmore would tie the game 1-1 with a goal by John Szabo with 5:15 left in the period. Drumheller would regain the lead with 3:07 left in the second with Lachlan Kozicky scoring his third of the playoffs, from Rowan McDonald and Jacob Goudreau. Drumheller would take the 2-1 lead into the third period.
The Eagles, who have had good success on the powerplay in this series, tied the game at 5:18 when Hudson Landmark scored his sixth of the post-season. Then, with 10:05 left in the third, Owen Mastroianni scored for the Eagles, giving them their first lead of the game 3-2. Drumheller would pull goaltender Sean Cootes for the extra attacker late in the third period and in dramatic fashion, Bradley Gallo would score, assisted by Tristan Payne and Jacob Goudreau, with 9.7 seconds left in the third period. That would tie the game 3-3 and would send it to overtime.
Much of the overtime period would be in the Canmore zone but Drumheller just couldn’t get another past Eagles goaltender Alexander Scheiwiller. With 7:41 left in the first overtime period, Canmore would score the winner with Owen Mastroianni scoring his second of the game, ending the Dragons season. The game would be the last for graduating Dragons players Cameron Johnsen, Kaiden Schaupmeyer, and goaltender Sean Cootes.
The Eagles now await the winner of the Grande Prairie / Whitecourt series, which is tied at two games a piece and continues on Friday night in Whitecourt.
Comments