CANMORE – The Canmore Eagles stumbled through the final two weeks of the regular season, but are eager to hit the restart button with playoffs starting Sunday (March 1) in Camrose against the Kodiaks.
In the final two games of the season, head coach Andrew Milne used it as an opportunity to rotate resting his players.
“Rest is a weapon," Milne said. "We implemented that over the past couple weeks. We had the chance to give some guys a break to regroup. We’ve been able to prepare and we will have three more days of good practice to be ready for Sunday."
On Sunday (Feb. 23), the Eagles got a preview of the first round against the Kodiaks, but without some of the team's star players in Eathan Scheaffer, Alex Young, Connor Lyons, Dylan Witzke and Tye Carriere, who didn’t make the trip.
“It was a good rest. It’s the only game I didn’t play this year [and] I feel ready to go for Sunday,” said Lyons, the team's captain.
The Eagles received a boost with the return of Lane Paddison in the team’s 6-5 win over Olds last Friday (Feb. 21). It was the 18-year-old winger's first game since breaking his foot in a game against the Brooks Bandits on Dec. 21.
“It’s been tough because I was out for so long but it’s nice to get back into a rhythm just in time for playoffs,” said Paddison.
Discipline was a major issue for the Eagles throughout the final weeks of the regular season, raking up 166 minutes in the sin bin over six games.
“We have to avoid penalties [and] our discipline has to be better," said Milne. "We’ve talked about it a lot. We will take penalties but we have to stop taking bad penalties and putting ourselves in a bad spot."
Lyons echoed his coach’s view on penalties adding the importance of special teams play in the postseason.
“Strong special teams play can win you a series," the captain said. "In order for us to have success killing penalties we have to start by taking fewer of them. And on the other side we have to get our power play rolling again. The power play has been the backbone of our offence this year."
The Eagles feel positive about the series against Camrose and hopeful that veteran players leadership will trickle down to the younger players.
“We do have a lot of young guys in this room who might not fully understand playoff hockey is like, but they are guys that have had success before coming to play juniors," Lyons said. "We have good leadership too, so we have to set an example. We have a lot of faith right now in this group."
Over six games in the regular season, the Kodiaks claimed four wins over the Eagles and outscored the local squad 25-20. Three games were decided by a single goal.
“We are feeling confident," Milne said. "We played some really great hockey through January and February so the belief is there. The last couple weeks weren’t our best, but we were focused on Camrose already and we were lackadaisical – focused on our rest and recovery, which was all leading up to Sunday."
Camrose secured home ice advantage and will host the first two games before the series shifts to Canmore for games three and four on Wednesday (March 4) and Thursday (March 5).
