INNISFAIL - The Birds of Innisfail are playing the second game of their best-of-five senior men’s North Central Hockey League semifinal Sunday in their home arena and the goal is to avenge the opening game road loss Saturday night to the Wetaskiwin Longhorns.
The Eagles got behind the proverbial eight ball early and the Longhorns skated to a 5-1 victory Feb. 22.
It was a battle of two of the league’s better teams; the Longhorns, a skilled team that finished in second place during the regular season, and third-place Innisfail.
And Wetaskiwin proved to be just too strong in Game 1.
The Longhorns got on the scoreboard quickly, with the first goal of the game by former Innisfail Eagles Richard Kelly at 16:33.
Wetaskiwin added another with just 26 seconds left in the opening period on a goal by former NHL and AHL pro Martin Sonnenberg, and the first period ended 2 – 0 for the Longhorns.
And what is an unusual occurrence for the Eagles, they were outshot 18-14 in the opening period.
There was no scoring in the second period but Innisfail outshot Wetaskiwin 16-10.
The Longhorns came out fast once again in the third period.
Justin Faryna made it 3-0 at 16:50, and 45 seconds later Quentin Greenwood put a shot past Eagles’ goalie Chance Griffith for the Longhorns’ fourth goal.
Faryna then got his second goal of the game nearly eight minutes later to make it 5-0.
However, the Eagles finally got one back 21 seconds later at 8:35 when Josh Gette scored.
But that was it for the visiting Eagles and the first game ended 5-1 for Wetaskiwin.
However, the Eagles can once again claim they outshot their opponents over three periods, doing so last night by a margin of 49-38.
In the opening game of the league’s other semifinal series on Saturday night, the Lacombe Generals defeated the Stony Plain Eagles 3-1.
The game Sunday at the Innisfail Twin Arena has a 5 p.m. start.
