INNISFAIL – Ryan Dodd was breathing a sigh of relief following Sunday's deciding nail-biting quarter-final senior men’s hockey game at the Innisfail Twin Arena against the Devon Barons.
The head coach said his Innisfail Eagles hockey team had to give 150 per cent of themselves to come from behind in the series and finally pull it off with a heart-stopping 4 – 3 win Feb. 16 to win the best-of-five series three games to two.
Dodd said it was possible due to “sheer determination”, noting his squad was down two players the night before in Devon but still found a way to win 3 – 1 to tie the series.
He said from the start Devon would not be an easy to team to defeat, and that remained the case until Sunday’s final buzzer.
“They just keep on working, and then just keep on coming. We had a hard time with them,” said Dodd, noting both teams had just played three games over three nights, or five games in nine days. “We're probably a better hockey team but that doesn't mean anything when you look at what they brought and the competition they gave us.
“And man, if the fans can't enjoy something like that on a Sunday afternoon, holy lightning. That's better than anything they're going to see on TV.”
The Barons opened the game’s scoring midway in the first period on a goal by Austin Cunningham.
Four minutes later the Birds’ Chase Thudium tied it and the game remained 1 – 1 until 15:30 of the second period when Ty Clay scored to give the Eagles the lead.
And then under two minutes later, Innisfail’s Chance Longhorn scored and it was 3 – 1.
The Barons fought back and Matthew Stefanishion scored at 11:20 to bring Devon a little closer.
But Quinton Lisoway gave the Birds a 4 – 2 lead with just over three minutes to play in the second period, and it stayed that way after 40 minutes.
Early in the third at 17:25, Stefanishion gave his Barons a boost with his second goal of the game and it was 4 -3.
And Devon kept coming and coming, and Birds’ goalie Chance Griffith was called upon to make key saves while at the other end of the rink Barons’ netminder Mike Gudmandson made his own spectacular blocks to keep his team within reach.
But it wasn’t to be for the Barons. The Birds took the win.
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“We had to kind of bring the game to the trenches,” said Barons head coach Doug McCarthy. “They (Eagles) are a fast, smooth-skating team; great transition from their defence, and we tried to keep it to our level as long as we could.
“Fortunately for us we have fantastic goalies, so they always keep us in the game,” he said, adding he was full of praise for every member of his gritty team. “I commended the guys because this is senior hockey. Nobody here gets paid any pennies.
“They're coming out here for the love of the game and the passion of the sport, and for them to put that kind of a commitment out is just phenomenal.”
The Birds will now go on to the best-of-five semifinals to play the Wetaskiwin Longhorns, a team that finished in second place in the nine-team North Central Hockey League regular season standings.
The Longhorns are coming off a three-game, quarter-final sweep against the Bonnyville Pontiacs.
In the regular season Wetaskiwin defeated the Birds 5 – 4 on Oct. 5 at the Innisfail Twin Arena, and at home on Jan. 11 by a margin of 7 – 2.
But Dodd is not at all worried.
“That's a great hockey club, and you know there's a lot of tie-ins there. They've got six former players from Innisfail that are playing on that team,” said Dodd. “I'm not worried about it. Hey, when you get a locker room of guys that want to win, away we go.”
The schedule for the five-game, semifinal series against Wetaskiwin has not yet been released. It is expected to be ready this coming week.
