It was another major blowout for the Eckville Midget Eagles on Saturday night as they swept across home ice for a menacing win over Stettler.
The night started out with a physical first period from both teams seeing the Eagle’s take a quick 3 points early on and Stettler making their only goal of the night.
Early in the second period Eckville again put one behind Stettler’s goalie to make the score 4-1. Following the goal the opposing team took a few foul play calls including a hard mid ice check and questionable conduct call by the referees. Eckville found themselves in an eventual 4-3power play to score another.
By the end of the night the Eagles racked up a 9-1 win. Saturday night’s triumph gives the Eagles a perfect 7-0 record, landing them first in their tier.
Assistant coach, Monte Miller, was filling in for head coach Bob Morrish during the game and told the Echo he felt the boys have earned their rank this year adding their speed as a team and outstanding sportsmanship on the ice says a great deal about the team.
“Their passing and their overall game was good all around - both their offensive and defense,” said Miller. “We played really well as a team and saw some excellent goal tending,
Not only did the Eagles out skate their opponents, they certainly out shot them with a final shot counter at 48-28 for the home team withWade Pattinson in goal for the Eagles.
Despite the rough play by the other team they kept their cool as a team throughout the game to which Miller adds the team is known for as it partially responsible for their success this season.
“We preach and lecture our guys to skate away from that stuff, the pushing and the shoving,” he explained. “There’s a time and place for it when it comes down to it - especially in boxing out for your goalie,
“The team has been commended for their ability to be able to skate away from being egged on like that and we always tell them not to worry about it - we’ll get them on the scoreboard.”
Miller added one of the team’s goal this season is to have the tier’s least amount of penalty minutes and so far they are in second place.
So far this season Sundre has been the team’s biggest competition on the ice. The Eagles have faced Sundre three times this season. CoachMiller refers to the last game as a ‘little bit of a workout’.
“That one was on home ice but the previous away games we beat them 7-2 and 6-2 and this one was a little bit closer but we still came out on top and ahead,” said Miller. “Saturday night though they used their team speed. We pretty well have the fastest team in the league and we are fortunate to have three lines that are capable of skating like that.”
He added they did pretty well for it being there second game back after a 12 day break.
Up next the Eagles will be heading to St. Paul for the weekend to compete in a tournament over the weekend. Upon their return they take on the Rimbey Midget Renegades on December 12 at 7:00 p.m.
editor@eckvilleecho.com