INNISFAIL – The Innisfail Eagles senior men's hockey team are set to soar in its 75th year towards its elusive goal of a national Allan Cup victory from an old but familiar triple A hockey league.
Kent Wing, the Eagles’ director of hockey operations, confirmed last week the AAA senior men's Chinook Hockey League (CHL) is being rejuvenated, a process that began last May. He said an executive has been elected for the revived league with Sam Maupin as president.
The league will run a 2022-23 hockey season with three teams: the Innisfail Eagles, the Stony Plain Eagles and the Coyotes Hockey Club.
“There is a feeling of excitement,” said Wing of the news of the reborn AAA league. “As soon as we told (players) that we're guaranteed to play triple A hockey, and that Stony was putting in a triple A team, then everyone was a lot more excited.
“Until we could tell them that Stony was back to play and we were AAA it was kind of hesitant, but now our boys are itching,” added Wing. “Some of them are probably doing pre-season training. And they said after a couple weeks they’ll be back to the rink. It will be really exciting for everybody.”
The CHL was founded in 1955 and ran until 2016. The league was renamed Allan Cup Hockey West (ACHW) prior to the 2017-18 season.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2019-20 playoffs and the 2020-21 season and the Eagles left the CHL before the 2021-22 season.
The Eagles played in the double A Ranchlands Hockey league (RHL) last season. The AAA Eagles overwhelmed the AA opposition with a perfect 16 – 0 regular season record. However, the Eagles' AAA status made the team ineligible for post-season AA play.
There has been no Allan Cup play since 2019 when the Innisfail Eagles lost the final game of the tournament to host Lacombe Generals.
“We were told up until February there would be an Allan Cup. The contacts we had with Hockey Canada were saying. ‘there will be an Allan Cup, there will be an Allan Cup.’ Clearly that did not happen,” said Wing. “It's unfortunate. We’ve had three years now without and hopefully we can get it back this year.”
In the meantime, Wing said the rejuvenated CHL is moving ahead with a 2022-23 regular season.
Wing said the Innisfail Eagles will have an 18-game regular season. He said league officials are still working on a playoff format.
Carstairs not home-base
As for the Coyotes Hockey Club, team officials attempted to have the town of Carstairs as home base but could not reach an arena agreement.
“We're going to be playing out of Innisfail for this season and then looking at our permanent home for next year. We had a bit of fallout with our rink agreement in Carstairs,” said Ryan Smiley, founder and assistant general manager of the Coyotes Hockey Club. “We're not going to affiliate ourselves with Carstairs because of the rink situation. They were trying to put our games at like 11 o'clock at night, so that wasn't going to work.”
Smiley added his team hopes to play in Carstairs the following season but could also find a permanent home in a nearby community.
Wing said the first regular season home game for the Innisfail Eagles is scheduled for Oct. 15 against the Coyotes Hockey Club, which for the upcoming season is being a classified as an AA team as it will be their first season in the AAA league.
“You have to play a year as AA before you can go AAA,” said Wing.
With senior men's triple A hockey in western Canada seemingly lost forever during the pandemic there appears to be at least a sliver of hope it can be revived, and not just with the rejuvenated CHL.
Wing said there’s also interest from B.C.’s Powell River Regals to face off against the Innisfail Eagles this year, which could possibly lead to the rejuvenation of a McKenzie Cup western regional showdown for a spot at the national Allan Cup tourney.
“They're going to come out for a weekend during the season and we're going to do a weekend series here with them. That's our goal, so they can gauge playability and how they ranked with us as a triple A team,” said Wing.
He added there’s a possibility the senior AA men's Fort St. John Flyers could also declare AAA in the fall.
Wing said the Innisfail Eagles are also planning on starting the season with an alumni memorial game for the late Tyler Haarstad, who passed away last June.
Haarstad was on two Allan Cup-winning Bentley Generals teams, who later played as a valued member for the Innisfail Eagles.
