INNISFAIL – For the second year in a row the Innisfail Eagles are Alberta's senior men's AAA hockey champions.
And the Birds of Innisfail are also heading to the national Allan Cup Challenge in Dundas, Ontario for the second consecutive year where the team will attempt to reverse last year’s early heartbreaking exit.
“Our guys are committed. We had a gut-wrenching Allan Cup last year. We didn't get the result we wanted,” said Innisfail head coach Kevin Smyth. “There's a lot of guys in this room that were there last year, and they believe they've got something to prove.”
On March 22 at the Innisfail Twin Arena, Innisfail entered the third game of the best-of-five provincial championship series against the Stony Plain Eagles leading two games to nil.
In the first two games Innisfail got off to a slow start but their better conditioning propelled them towards explosive turnarounds, and ultimately winning easily.
Stony scored first on March 22 less than a minute into the game but Innisfail did not wait until the second or third periods to turn on their jets.
It was just 19 seconds later when Innisfail’s Chase Thudium tied the score.
From there, Innisfail dominated the action until the final two minutes of the game when Stony Plain pulled goalie Colton Iwaschuk for a sixth attacker.
Jesse Lees had scored Innisfail’s second goal of the game at 17:07 of the first to give his team a 2-1 lead and the southern Eagles never looked back.
Ty Clay and Colten Hayes both scored in the second and Innisfail led 4-1 after 40 minutes.
Thudium, who was chosen Innisfail’s Player of the Game, added his second of the night at 15:41 of the third period and it was 5-1.
Stony got one back two and a half minutes later to make it 5-2, and that was the final score, despite Stony’s frantic final two minutes with six attackers.
Innisfail netminder Brodan Salmond held the fort, and when the final buzzer sounded it was Innisfail handily winning and sweeping Stony Plain three games to nil to claim the provincial championship.
Hayes is a six-year Innisfail Eagles veteran. He has an Allan Cup ring from 2016 when he was with the Bentley Generals.
Next month Hayes will be with his Innisfail squad that will attempt for the third time since 2019 to bring home the historic Allan Cup, awarded annually to the senior ice hockey champions of Canada.
“It's been a great ride and this is a third chance to go back to the Allan Cup. That has been our focus, and the job was not done last year,” said Hayes. “It's a very hard tournament to win. It's been our goal to get back to the dance and do some damage. I think we got a good group of guys.”
Innisfailian Jose Gette is in his third season with the Innisfail Eagles.
He said the team’s goal this season was to get another chance for the “dance” to win the national championship, which for him would bring extra pride as he is a proud longtime citizen of Innisfail.
“We're coming together as a team. We’re ready to win this year,” he said. “That’s all we are focused on. We want to win that trophy.
“We have a lot of guys here who were a part of that loss in Dundas last year,” said Gette. “We don't want that to happen again, so we're not going to let it happen again.”
The Innisfail Eagles first Allan Cup game in Dundas is scheduled for April 21.
