INNISFAIL – The Innisfail Eagles' elusive dream of winning an Allan Cup is once again over for at least another year.
Both Hockey Alberta and Hockey Canada told the Albertan last week there will be no Allan Cup championship tournament in 2022, which the Eagles had planned all hockey season long to attend this spring in the southern Ontario municipalities of Dundas and Hamilton.
“During the 2021-22 hockey season there is one showcase league and a total of three AAA teams across Canada in operation that are competing in the senior AAA hockey division,” said Dean McIntosh, vice president of events and properties for Hockey Canada, in a statement made to the Albertan. “With very limited teams Hockey Canada does not plan to host an Allan Cup Senior AAA championship in the 2021-22 season.
“Hockey Canada and the Hockey Canada Board of Directors will be looking for opportunities to retain the Allan Cup beyond the 2021-22 season but until there is clearer direction as it relates to COVID-19 and senior AAA league play a decision will not be taken.”
The cancellation of the 2022 Allan Cup is the third consecutive year the national tournament has been cancelled, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The national championship for seniors mens hockey was last played in 2019 when the Innisfail Eagles, who have never won the Allan Cup in its 70-year history, lost a hard-fought final game against the Lacombe Generals.
Kevin Macrae, director of hockey operations for Hockey Alberta, said there were no other AAA senior mens hockey teams in the country that declared a desire to participate in the 2022 Allan Cup championship. He added teams from eastern Canada, notably in Ontario, were not allowed to play hockey until recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They are just up and going now. I had heard a few rumours floating around from people saying, ‘Because Ontario is playing now something is going to happen.’ Nothing is going to happen,” said Macrae, adding there is hope the national Allan Cup tournament can be brought back in the future. “But the number of teams and what COVID did to us the last couple of years is putting a wrench into all of that.”
Not playing in the Allan Cup this year is a blow to the Eagles organization that had planned long and hard for a year to make the spring trip out east.
The Innisfail squad, the last AAA senior mens team still standing in western Canada, played in the AA Ranchlands Hockey League (RHL) this season and recorded a perfect 16 – 0 regular season record, although three of those wins, including the final road and home games, were forfeitures from other teams’ inability to play. Under its agreement with the RHL, the Eagles were not eligible to play in the league playoffs.
Brian Spiller, the president of the Innisfail Eagles Hockey Club, said his immediate reaction to the news was “disappointment” as the team spent an entire year practicing and playing RHL games to prepare themselves for the national Allan Cup tournament.
“But we knew in the back of our minds there was quite a good chance it would be cancelled for the third straight year. It’s not a big surprise to us but it’s still a disappointment,” said Spiller.
He said if Hockey Canada announces there will be an Allan Cup next year the Eagles will keep going. However, Spiller said in normal times senior teams across Canada had to have an application to attend an Allan Cup tournament a year in advance to Hockey Canada but applications for next year have not even been sent out yet.
“It takes a lot of planning and organization, so we’re thinking there probably won’t be one (Allan Cup) next year because they haven’t sent out an application to host one,” said Spiller. “We want to keep going with the team in whatever form it takes for the young men to play some hockey and the fans to come out and cheer them on.”
With the AAA Allan Cup option for next year fading, Spiller said the Eagles may join an AA league permanently next season and “give up AAA dreams as it’s been costly.
“We’ve had players driving in for our practice last night (March 9) from towns like Wainwright and Fort Saskatchewan and we have three City of Edmonton firefighters that play for us. We have players from Okotoks, Calgary and Red Deer,” noted Spiller. “They spend a lot of time and effort in order to get here, and they were all coming here because we were going to go to the Allan Cup.
“If we were only going to be playing AA hockey, they had AA teams in their regions they could play for but we were the only team in Alberta chasing the AAA dream and so they put in a lot of time and effort in themselves.”
There was one bit of good news from Spiller. He said a top AA team from Powell River, B.C. has talked to the Eagles about flying out to Innisfail soon to play a two-game weekend exhibition series at the Arena. Spiller said there is no confirmation yet but the two teams are working on possible dates.
