INNISFAIL - The Birds of Innisfail have flown home after a wild rollercoaster Allan Cup challenge in Dundas, Ontario.
The Eagles did not bring the cup home but there were important lessons.
The cup final game was held Saturday, April 22 and the hometown host Dundas Real McCoys came from behind to defeat the Clarenville Ford Caribous 5 – 3.
It was the Real McCoys second Allan Cup title as Canada’s senior men’s hockey champions. Dundas previously won in 2014.
Dundas earned the title the hard way in 2023. They lost their opening round robin game 2 – 0 to Innisfail and only qualified for the series playoffs by the slimmest of margins.
The Real McCoys advanced to the playoffs by losing 5 – 4 in overtime against Clarenville in the final game of the four-team round robin play.
Dundas’s loss, which earned them a point in the round robin standings, also eliminated the Eagles from advancing.
The Real McCoys then went on to defeat the Hamilton Steelers 7 – 4 in the semifinal, and then Clarenville in the championship game.
In the meantime, the Eagles, who finished the round robin with a record of one win and two close one-goal losses, finished the preliminary round in last place.
“We're going to keep our heads held high. Obviously, it stings a little bit but at the end of the day we represented Alberta well,” said assistant coach Kent Wing, who is also the Eagles' vice-president and director of operations. “We won provincials. We earned our spot in this (national) tournament.
“We are definitely taking it as a learning experience and just keep moving forward,” he added. “We can look at what we did well and build off that, and we can look at what we didn't do well.”
He said the Eagles team, which went without playing for almost a month before the start of the Allan Cup series on April 17, did its best to be prepared for the national championship but ultimately the “rust” showed.
“Some of our breakdowns in games came because of rustiness and we didn’t have quite the legs under us as much as we should have, and moving forward for next year we know what we got to do to prepare a little bit better,” said Wing. “It’s a tough trophy to win. It’s very grinding; a lot of banged up bodies.
“So, for next year we’ll prepare a little bit better with managing injuries, managing bumps and bruises and get better at it,” he added. “Like the Bentley Generals, as many cups as they won, it took them a few tries before they got their first one.”
As for where the Allan Cup championship will be played next year, Wing noted there is “talk” that Dundas is once again interested, especially with the federal government recently restoring Hockey Canada funding; monies traditionally used to support Allan Cup championship tourneys but not in 2023.
“Maybe that helps them with getting sponsorship money back, and maybe that helps proceed to get the tournament back to its glory days,” said Wing.
He noted Innisfail did apply to host the Allan Cup in 2019 but so did Lacombe and the latter was the site for the national tourney.
Wing said there is still some interest within the Eagles’ organization to try again but that would be up to the board to decide.
“When we meet in May, we can obviously discuss it then. There's a lot of moving parts that will take place with us hosting,” said Wing, noting there’s ice availability at the Innisfail Twin Arena and potential impacts to other user groups to seriously consider. “There's definitely talk with a few of us that would love to do it.
“It’s just a matter of the stars aligning and putting a bid together, if that's what we decide as a board is something we want to do.”
