LACOMBE – It was not the battle victory they had hoped for.
The Innisfail Eagles squared off against the Rosetown Red Wings in Game 1 of the 2019 Allan Cup tournament in Lacombe on Monday afternoon (April 8).
They were on the losing end of a 4-3 decision.
“Five on five we were excellent,” said Brian Sutter, Eagles head coach. “We took penalties that we shouldn’t have taken. We actually took five tonight and they scored on three of them.
“We beat ourselves tonight,” he added.
Rosetown opened the scoring with a goal early in the first period. Eleven minutes later Innisfail defenceman, Chris Bailer found the back of the net and tied the game at 1-1.
The Red Wings continued to pressure and took a 2-1 lead in the dying seconds of the period with a power play marker. They widened that lead early in the second frame, making it 3-1 for Rosetown.
Innisfail would answer back less than a minute later with an unassisted goal by Eagles forward Shawn Bates, followed by a goal from Tyler Beechy early in the third frame to tie the game at 3-3.
“I thought we came out strong and we played really well,” said Beechy. “We got ourselves into trouble with some undisciplined penalties and in a short tournament like this you can’t be making those mistakes. We talked about it as a group (after the game) and we’ll fix that for tomorrow.”
Some undisciplined play cost the Birds, when Rosetown’s Jordan Johnston netted a go-ahead goal and the game winner on the power play just before the half way mark of the third period, giving Rosetown a 4-3 win.
“We knew Innisfail was going to come and battle hard. That’s what they do,” said Johnston. “They’re a really good team and we give them a lot of respect.
“We knew this game wasn’t going to be an easy game. We knew it was going to be a battle and that’s what it turned out to be.”
Beechy said the Eagles learned from their mistakes in game one and will re-group for game two tomorrow (April 9) when they face the defending Allan Cup champions, the Stoney Creek Generals from Ontario.
“No matter how many goals we were down, we didn’t change our game plan and didn’t loose our focus,” said Beechy. “Any team that’s in this tournament deserves to be respected and we’re going to treat the Stoney Creek Generals that way. We’re not going to take a back seat, we’re going to come out firing.”
