INNISFAIL – The Innisfail Eagles have landed in Ontario.
All the practices are over. The fundraising is done. It’s time for hockey on the national stage in the team’s 75th anniversary year.
More than that its time to bear down and take down the best senior AAA mens’ teams in the country, and bring home the prize that has eluded the organization for so long; the Allan Cup - Canada’s oldest national hockey championship.
The Birds of Innisfail’s first game is tonight (April 17) against the Dundas Real McCoys, a squad that won it all in 2014. The four-team national tournament will run until the final game on April 22.
As of last night (April 16) there was still no official confirmation whether Allan Cup games are being live streamed.
The Eagles flew out to Dundas, Ontario Sunday morning (April 16) to play in the first national Allan Cup tournament since 2019 when it was hosted just 60 kilometres north of town in Lacombe.
The Eagles came close to the senior mens’ hockey mountaintop but were defeated in the final game by the hometown Generals by a score of 5-2.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the Allan Cup championship for the next three years, and now in 2023 the Eagles are returning to claim what they so heartbreakingly failed to accomplish in 2019.
“When we won the provincials (March 18) you could see in the young guys how much they enjoyed it, and how much they wanted to continue on,” said Eagles head coach Kevin Smyth, a coach with the 2019 Eagles team, and a player on the 2009 Allan Cup champion Bentley Generals. “We're representing Alberta for the national championship of Canada and I think the guys are quite excited.
“Our old guys are ready to bring the experience and the young guys are going to bring youth in the excitement,” he added. “I think we’ll go down there and give it our best shot.”
Overcoming challenges
Ryan Dodd is the team’s current general manager. He has been with the Eagles since the 1998-99 season.
For the first eight seasons he was a player. He then served as an athletic manager, assistant coach, head coach and then general manager.
Since the provincial championship he’s had the herculean task of ensuring everything goes right to get his team to Ontario to make a successful challenge for the Allan Cup.
Dodd and the Eagles management team is taking a group of 40 to Ontario, which includes 28 players and a dozen support staff.
Financially, it has not been easy. Hockey Canada is not supporting the Allan Cup championship this year as there is no federal money and the organization must dig itself out of protracted controversy.
This leaves all competing visiting teams are left to pay all their own expenses.
But Innisfailians and long-time sponsors have rallied with “close” to $60,000 to help the team get to Ontario.
“Obviously every dollar counts because you don’t know for sure what you’re going to encounter out there,” said Dodd. “I think I’ve got everything planned out but of course the plan could all of a sudden take a turn and maybe you need to stay an extra day. When you’re going with 40 guys it’s like, ‘wow, hotel rooms for 40 guys is a big bill for one night.
“It’s a big hill to climb,” Dodd said of the $60,000 needed to get to Dundas. “We’ve got some amazing community support from some past Eagles who are business owners here in town, sponsors who have come back to the table and offered more to help get us there. We are going to be close.
“We are making sure we are going,” he added emphatically. “So far, we’ve had great support; the night with the Alberta Hall of Fame was great. There was probably 70 or 80 people there and the music was just phenomenal. There was a silent auction with great items and people came and supported us.”
That support means Innisfail can finally get back to the senior mens’ AAA national championship and remove the sting from 2019 and bring home the Allan Cup.
Dodd’s other big challenge is the health of the team’s players.
“We haven't played since we won the provincial championship. First and foremost is making sure that your guys are ready and they're healthy,” he said, noting the team has been practicing at least weekly before heading out to Ontario on Sunday.
And then it was getting everybody to the airport, and on the right plane with all the equipment they had to bring, and finally hoping there is a bus in Ontario waiting to take them to their hotel in Dundas.
“It’s always the little things you have to worry about,” said Dodd. “You get to the hotel and everybody relaxes. We'll get everybody fed and watered and we will start preparing for Monday.”
The outlook is so positive Dodd is considering an off-day trip this Thursday for his players to visit the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Getting ready
Since the provincial championship victory on March 18 the Eagles, many of whom live out of town, have managed to get to four practices; all of them out of town as the ice was taken out of the Innisfail Twin Arena at the end of March.
The last one was held in Cochrane on April 12. Smyth said every practice, except the one on Easter weekend, had a full lineup.
The Eagles will be facing teams they know little or nothing about.
Besides the hometown Dundas Real McCoys squad the Eagles will also face off against the Hamilton Steelers and the Clarenville Ford Caribous, a 2011 Allan Cup-winning squad from Newfoundland and Labrador.
However, what Smyth will have is a near full roster of committed hockey players who all know each other.
With conviction, the head coach told the Albertan, ‘we're going to be full guns blazing.
“I learned from Mr. Brian Sutter (former Eagles coach) a long time ago that you can't worry too much about who you're playing necessarily,” said Smyth. “We'll try and get a look as coaches when we get down there to maybe see some line match-ups but you just got to be worried about going out and playing your own game to the best of your ability.
“I’d rather lose that way than lose worrying about another team.”
Allan Cup Schedule
Monday April 17th
Hamilton Steelers vs Clarenville Ford Caribous - 3:30 p.m.
Dundas Real McCoys vs Innisfail Eagles - 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday April 18
Innisfail Eagles vs Clarenville Ford Caribous - 3:30 p.m.
Dundas Real McCoys vs Hamilton Steelers - 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday April 19
Hamilton Steelers vs Innisfail Eagles - 7:30 p.m.
Thursday April 20
Dundas Real McCoys vs Clarenville Ford Caribous - 7:30 p.m.
Friday April 21
Semi Final - 7:30 p.m.
Saturday April 22
Final - TBD
All games at the JL Grightmire Market Street Arena in Dundas, Ontario.
