The Airdrie-Cochrane (AC) Avalanche had a pair of home games on Oct. 28 and Oct 29 when they hosted the CRAA Gold Royals and the NWCAA Stampeders in Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League (AMMHL) action.
On Oct. 28 the Avalanche tied the Royals 2-2 in a tightly contested game. The Royals opened the scoring early in the game on a power play goal at the 2:45 mark of the first period before Evan Miske scored his first of two goals midway through the period. The Royals would then reclaim the one goal lead once again early in the second frame before Miske tied the game at two, which gave the game it’s final score… the game gave the Avalanche their first tie of the season.
Avalanche goaltender Jordan Lott was peppered with 52 shots and was very solid in net for his team. AC assistant coach Kris Keller said Lott’s performance was key to his team being able to stay in the game and take away a crucial point.
“Yeah Jordan (Lott) was outstanding, I don’t think he was too happy with his two starts prior and he was really looking for a bounce back, and that’s exactly what we got,” Keller said.
“Especially in the second period when we ran into some penalty trouble and were outshot 24-5, he really held his team in there. I don’t think we come out of there with a point without Jordan’s effort.”
In the Avalanche’s second game in as many days, they managed to squeak out a 1-0 victory over the Stampeders. Forward Evan Mulcahy scored the lone goal for the Avalanche when he took a feed from defenceman Justin LeGrandeur and deposited past the Stampeders goaltender. At the other end of the ice, Avalanche goaltender Garrett Fuller got the shut out by stopping all 25 shots he faced in the game.
The win improved the Avalanche’s record to 3-4-1 on the season, and the team has now earned points in their last three games including two wins dating back to Oct. 21 when they beat the CNHA Blazers 8-3. Keller feels like his team has turned a corner and will look to build off of recent success.
“It was a bit of a rocky start the first couple of weeks and our record certainly wasn’t where we wanted it to be. However we didn’t concern ourselves too much as three of our four losses were by one goal and the other was by two,” Keller said.
“We were doing a lot of the right things, it was just about staying focused and eliminating those costly late game mistakes. We have a great group here though, they come to practice every week wanting to get better, so they were up for the challenge. There is still a lot of work to do but we are very happy with our group so far.”
The club will have another busy weekend ahead, as they’ll look to improve their record when they have a rematch with the Royals on Nov. 4 before returning home to play the Leduc Techmation Oil Kings on Nov. 5.
