INNISFAIL – There are sacred unwritten codes in hockey.
One of them is not to take runs at the other team’s goaltender, especially if he’s the lone netminder dressed for the game.
On Saturday, Jan. 18 at the Innisfail Twin Arena, the senior men’s hockey Innisfail Eagles played against the Westlock Warriors and the hometown team did not like what was happening to goalie Wade Waters, who was the only netminder dressed for the Birds.
“They ran our goalie twice in that (third) period, and towards the end Wade got hurt. That's why the third period got carried away at the end,” said Eagles head coach Ryan Dodd.
“You got to have a little respect for the hockey game itself. I mean, if you can't win on the ice and you're going to try to run the goaltender that's not hockey.
“And so, we took care of it,” added the coach. “Nobody's going to come into our rink and push us around like that and think they're going to have liberties on our goaltender.”
Warriors head coach Rod Kaliel vehemently denied his team was intentionally trying to run Waters.
“In both instances they were driving the net, and that's just how everything shut down. There was no intentional anything,” said Kaliel.
“I think what was the precipitating factor was just concerns with goalie contact on both sides of the ice and (it) resulted in some tempers flaring.”
Those tempers flared big time with 6:43 remaining in the third period.
There was a collision in Waters’ crease and for the Birds it was payback time.
The Eagles’ Dan Vandermeer and Dave Nippard took decisive physical action.
And then Waters was later plastered to the ice on another play.
For a few minutes it was touch and go whether his team would have to find an emergency goalie to finish the game.
But Waters courageously willed his way to resume his duties.
With 1:03 left in the game Westlock’s Jayce Matson tried his luck by taking on the Birds’ Ty Clay.
Big mistake.
Clay knocked him to the ice.
Matson was later taken to hospital by ambulance for a suspected concussion.
“If that's the way they want to play the game I guess they see the outcome,” said Dodd. “Number 17 (Matson) will figure out where he is by the end of the night.”
In the meantime, there are suspensions for both teams as a result of four game misconducts.
The Warriors’ Matson and Mike Ivey will get one game as will the Eagles’ Vandermeer and Clay, with the latter getting a second for being ruled as an aggressor in his fight.
Oh yes, there was an actual hockey game played.
And the Eagles were totally dominant.
The Warriors are a fine skating team but they just can’t match the Eagles’ skill level in every other area of the game.
By halfway in the second period the Eagles had outshot the Warriors by a margin of 36-10 and were never threatened on the scoreboard.
The Birds led 3 – 0 after 20 minutes and scored another two in the third enroute to a 5 – 1 win.
Five different Eagles scored; Clay, Josh Gette, Jacob Wozney. Braiden Leth and Chad Robinson.
Kyle Dronyk scored the lone goal for the Warriors.
Waters was tested 19 times, giving up just one goal to claim the victory behind the Eagles net.
The Warriors’ Westin Cardwell faced a total of 62 Eagles shots.
With their win over Westlock the Eagles are still in the hunt for second place in the nine-team North Central Hockey League.
Westlock is in eighth place, and for now holding down the last playoff spot.
The Eagles’s final game of the 16-game regular season will be on the road on Jan. 25 against their longtime archrivals Stony Plain Eagles.
The NCHL playoffs will then begin in the second week of February after the regular season ends for all teams on Feb. 2.
