INNISFAIL – The coach got what he wanted at the start and that was fast physical hockey.
And the players responded and dominated.
Mostly.
The Birds’ game wasn’t perfect in the eyes of Ryan Dodd, and that was more than OK, much more.
The Innisfail Eagles, much to the delight of a capacity home crowd of over 1,000 diehard Birds fans, defeated the defending North Central Hockey League (NCHL) champion Lacombe Generals 5-1 Friday, March 21 to take a commanding three-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven Vanberg Cup finals.
The Eagles head to Lacombe Saturday for Game 5 and a shot to win the senior men’s NCHL championship in their inaugural year in the league.
“The fourth game is the hardest game to win because you've got a team on the other side that is facing elimination and they're going to do everything they can to not be eliminated,” said Dodd after the game. “We got to get a good sleep tonight. Have a good focus coming into tomorrow and be prepared to do the same kind of a job.
“We knew this game would be close and be tight but we got to the third period tied at one and I knew that our guys would prevail,” added Dodd.
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The Eagles came out on fire in the first period and dominated play but Lacombe played tough and hung in.
Generals’ goalie Mackenzie Engel made several big saves to keep his team in the game but the Birds’ Zachary Evans-Renaud broke the scoreless game at 7:07 and Innisfail had a 1-0 lead after one period.
The Birds continued to press at the start of the second but the Generals tied the game at 10:07 on a goal by Ryan Swier.
His marker gave Lacombe a big lift and the Generals began to take control of the game but Eagles rookie goalie Chance Griffith made several outstanding saves to keep the game tied 1-1 after two periods.
“I just had to make the saves and keep the team in it and just do whatever I could to keep the puck out and just give the team momentum going into the third period,” said Griffith.
And the Eagles held on to that momentum, most notably from Dave Nippard, the game’s first star, who put the Birds ahead 2-1 at 16:34.
He then scored another at 5:59.
It was 3-1 for the hometown Eagles with just under six minutes to play.
“I just kind of beat the goalie short side to kind of get us going there,” said Nippard. “And on the second goal, we had the East Coast Connection, Zachary Evans-Renaud, and he kind of flicked the puck up.
“I was lucky enough to bat it out of the air and beat arguably one of their better D-men, and I tucked it five-hole,” he said.
After Nippard’s two goals the Eagles closed out the scoring with a pair of empty net markers by Chase Thudium and Ty Clay.
The final score was 5-1 for Innisfail.
The Eagles outshot the Generals 37-29.
Following the game, the Albertan was told by Lacombe team officials there would be no comment on the game from any team member.
Game 5 is tonight at Lacombe’s Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex. Puck drop is 7:45 p.m.
