INNISFAIL - It was a dog fight from start to finish.
Two highly skilled men’s senior AAA hockey teams – the Innisfail Eagles from Alberta and Clarenville Ford Caribous from Newfoundland and Labrador – were fighting for the right to lay claim they are the best in the country.
For Innisfail there is extra motivation. This is the Eagles 75th anniversary year, and the wanting is high to finally win the cherished 114-year-old Allan Cup in Dundas, Ontario this week and bring it back home to Alberta.
The closest the Eagles ever got to the top of the senior men’s hockey mountain was in 2019 when they lost in the final game of the Allan Cup tournament.
For the first half of the game on April 18 at Dundas’ JL Grightmire Market Street Arena, the Innisfail Eagles rightfully had a 1 – 0 lead over Clarenville; courtesy of a first period powerplay goal by Justin Faryna, with assists from Zane Jones and Joe Vandermeer.
It seemed the Birds of Innisfail, with their confidence soaring after Monday’s stunning opening game win over hometown Dundas Real McCoys, would replicate that performance.
But hold on. A sudden rash of penalties midway in the second period changed the entire complexion of the game.
Suddenly, the Birds were on their heals.
Clarenville began to wheel forward with purpose and scored a pair of powerplay goals two minutes apart.
The Caribous’ Danny Wicks tied the game at 12:01, and teammate Kris Hodge put Clarenville ahead 2 – 1 at 14:02, a score that stayed that way after 40 minutes of play.
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The Eagles appeared to get their bounce back in the first half of the final frame but Clarenville would not let their lead slip away.
The Birds were caught napping in their own end and Wicks scored his second goal of the game for the Caribous at 10:42, and it was 3 -1.
The Eagles were in a big hole, especially with Clarenville goalie Matt Jenkins standing tall in the net and frustrating every Innisfail attack.
However, with just under six minutes remaining the game’s complexion changed again.
Eagles sniper Simon Desbiens blasted a shot from the slot past Jenkins to make it 3 – 2. Brandon Arnold and Mitch Lipon collected the assists.
The goal supercharged the Eagles and they began blitzing Jenkins for most of the rest of the game.
In the final minute, Eagles goalie Matt Climie was pulled for an extra attacker.
The Eagles then attacked in wave after wave right until the dying last seconds but could not find the net behind a resilient Jenkins.
The game ended 3 – 2 for Clarenville.
The final shots on goal for the game were 36 to 33 in favour of Innisfail.
The Eagles are now one win and one loss in the four-team Allan Cup tournament. They play their final round robin game against the Hamilton Steelers on Wednesday, April 19. Puck drop is at 5:30 MST.
The game will be live streamed at www.innisfaileagles.com
