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Eckville Sr. Eagles soar into playoffs with win over Pirates

The Eagles defeated the Sylvan Lake Pirates 7-2 in the regular season finale on Jan. 18
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Eagles’ No. 51 Vince Cannon goes shoulder-to-shoulder with the Pirates as he takes a shot on net on Jan. 18. The Eagles came out with a 7-2 victory in the regular season finale. Photo by Kaylyn Whibbs/Eckville Echo

The Eckville Sr. Eagles crushed the Sylvan Lake Pirates in the final game of the NCHL regular season.

The Eagles soared to victory in the Battle of Highway 11 with a score of 7-2 on Jan. 18.

“We did a lot of work on Wednesday in practice before that game and kind of put everything in place for that game getting ready for playoffs,” said Head Coach Cale Walker.

The Eagles scored two goals in the first period and then two more in the second holding the Pirates at a 4-2 deficit going into the final frame of regular season play.

During the second intermission the Eagles made some adjustments and hit the ice ready to capitalize on more opportunities.

“Once we kind of got to that point it seemed like we got some bounces and the puck started going in the net for us,” added Walker.

The Eagles scored three goals in the third period while keeping the Pirates off the scoreboard to make it a 7-2 game at the final buzzer.

“Hopefully [we] carry some momentum from that last win and the intensity that that game had into the playoffs,” said Walker.

Walker and the Eagles went into playoffs sitting fifth in the standings, and he says they would have liked to finish a bit higher on that list.

He says the team had a large turnover of players this year, which means a lot of new players.

“We lost some key guys from last year and it’s just like any type of hockey, the young guys coming in they still have to adjust and adapt, it doesn’t matter what level they played at before they still have to adjust to our hockey and our team,” Walker added.

“All in all though I think with losing comes lessons, so I like to think we learned some lessons this year from losing.”

The Eagles will face off against the Devon Barons in Round 1 playoff action.

“We’re here to win, we want to win more than anything,” said Walker. “That’s pretty much all there is to it.”

Walker said the Eagles will be practicing according to their opponents and make some adjustments before hitting the road to kickoff Round 1 on Jan. 26.

“We play them twice this weekend, so we’ll want to have a good skate, a good practice and hopefully take it to them,” explained Walker.

The Eagles return to home ice for Game 2 of the best-of-five series on Jan. 27 at 3:30 p.m.

Game 4, if necessary, will be played at the Eckville Arena on Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m.


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Brian Pieper takes the puck down ice toward the Pirates’ net in hopes of putting a point on the board during the Friday night game. The Eagles face off against the Devon Barons in first round playoff action starting on Jan. 26. Photo by Kaylyn Whibbs/Eckville Echo
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No. 70 Chance Abbott fires a shot at the Pirates net during the regular season finale on Jan. 18. The Eagles return to home ice on Jan. 27 for Game 2 of the best-of-five playoff series. Photo by Kaylyn Whibbs/Eckville Echo