INNISFAIL – The high-flying Innisfail Eagles are back on home ice on Dec. 7 after taking off on the road last weekend with a decidedly confident offensive explosion that led to a 15-4 thrashing over the Morinville Kings.
And the overwhelming victory by the Innisfail senior men's hockey team on Nov. 30 at the Morinville Leisure Centre was led by team captain Joe Vandermeer who tallied a goal and six assists.
Vandermeer was named the game’s first star.
However, the win does not get Innisfail closer to top spot in the nine-team North Central Hockey League.
The Birds, who have now played a total of eight games in the regular season, are still four points behind their old rival Stony Plain for first place. But Innisfail has two games in hand.
Innisfail is also two points behind Lacombe and Wetaskiwin for the second and third spots in the standings, with the Eagles having played one less game this season than Wetaskiwin.
The Birds’ game against the league’s last place Morinville started off innocently enough with the teams tied 1-1 until midway in the first period. The Eagles’ Jacob Wozney opened the game’s scoring.
It was at 10:27 when Vandermeer scored an unassisted goal to put Innisfail ahead 2-1.
It stayed that way after one period of play.
But in the second period the Eagles turned on the jets, scoring eight goals against beleaguered goalie Garrett Storms.
Innisfail’s Ty Clay and Mike Marianchuk each had two goals while singles went to Josh Gette, Braiden Leth, Payton Wright and Quintin Lisoway.
The Kings managed one goal in the second and the score was 10-2 for Innisfail after 40 minutes of play.
But the Eagles still had more punch left, scoring five more goals in the final period.
Both Clay and Marianchuk added goals to give themselves hat tricks for the night while Wright got his second and Tyler Berkholtz added a single.
Morinville got the game’s two remaining goals to make the final score 15-4 for Innisfail.
The Birds outshot the Kings by a margin of 44 to 19. Eagles goalie Chance Griffith earned the win for Innisfail.
The Eagles are back on home ice at the Innisfail Twin Arena this Saturday (Dec. 7) against the Lacombe Generals. Puck drop is 8 p.m.
The following day on Dec. 8 the Birds go on the road to play the eighth place Bonnyville Pontiacs in the afternoon.
