INNISFAIL – It was a close, messy, gritty win for the Innisfail Eagles in Game 1 of the provincial senior mens finals.
The Birds came away with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Stony Plain Eagles in the first game of the best-of-seven playoff series on Saturday, Feb. 22 at the Innisfail Arena.
“It was an ugly kind of (game). It wasn’t a hard hitting game, it wasn’t a game where there was a lot of speed or a lot of flow,” said Innisfail head coach Brian Sutter.
“I didn’t think we played as well as we could have, but we had about six guys that haven’t been able to be to practice for a couple of weeks and they’re new guys on our team. It takes some time to adjust,” he added. “(Stony Plain) played well but we know we can be better.”
Stony Plain opened the scoring just past the halfway mark of the first period and held that one goal lead until about five and a half minutes into the second frame when Innisfail Eagles forward Quinton Lisoway buried a pass from Simon Desbiens on the powerplay, tying the game at 1-1.
Desbiens, who returned to the Eagles lineup Saturday after more than a year away recovering from a knee injury, put the Birds ahead late in the second period with a short-handed marker on a breakaway.
“My centreman did a great job on the faceoff. I was able to go on the fly and was able to win my battle there and was able to put the puck in the net,” said Desbiens.
“In the best-of-seven you always want to get the first game and that was our goal tonight,” he added. “There’s room for improvement for us but we definitely played well enough to win. We just got to move forward, take what’s good about it and be ready to go next Saturday.”
Stony Plain battled back to tie the game at 2-2 with a power-play goal about seven minutes into the third period. The game remained tied at the end of regulation and the first game of the playoffs needed overtime to decide a winner.
Innisfail netminder Allen York made timely saves through three regulation periods, and in the overtime.
“I didn’t think it was the greatest game for me. I didn’t like either of the goals, but to be honest there were some big saves at key moments so I’ll definitely take it and move on,” said York. “Good teams find a way to win.”
Newcomer Levi Nelson netted the overtime winner just past the halfway mark of the extra frame.
“We found a way to win,” said Nelson, noting a great pass from blueliner Chris Bailer before scoring the game-winning goal.
“That was a great pass…it fooled everybody and all I had to do was put it on net and fortunately I found the back of the net,” he said.
“Everybody ramps it up and everybody goes that much harder and tries to finish a check, create some momentum, create some energy and that’s just the way playoffs go.
“It was a good game for us tonight,” said Nelson, noting the work ahead for his team in the playoffs.
“It’s a pretty fortunate position to be in where you just got to win four games and then you got a chance to go to the Allan Cup,” said Nelson. “That’s pretty special but we can’t take anything for granted. We got to come to work every practice, every game and work our hardest. That’s what it’s going to take to get there,” Nelson concluded.
Innisfail outshot Stony Plain through overtime 40 to 29.
The Innisfail Eagles travel to Stony Plain Saturday, Feb. 29 for game two. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m.
