After salvaging a two-game losing streak dip with a win against the Sylvan Lake Admirals prior to heading on a couple of weeks' hiatus, the Innisfail Eagles needed to come up big to maintain a shot at the front of the pack.
After salvaging a two-game losing streak dip with a win against the Sylvan Lake Admirals prior to heading on a couple of weeks' hiatus, the Innisfail Eagles needed to come up big to maintain a shot at the front of the pack.
They did just that, heading into the weekend looking for a pair of wins, beating the Admirals 5-3 at home and taking the Chiefs down on the road 4-1.
"Two wins in two nights – it doesn't get much better than that," said coach Brian Sutter. "It puts us within a couple points of first place."
In the midst of the holiday season, the Friday evening hometown match was more sparsely attended, but just as action packed.
Ryan Kallis banged in the first puck for the Eagles with a delightful dipsy-doodle, sending a backhand shot over the pads of the opposing goalie in the first period.
The Sylvan Lake squad came racing back, finding the back of the net before the first frame was through.
The second period featured a bout at 16:47 that ended in a draw and sent Graham Telford into the stands for the remainder of the game.
Each team knocked in a couple, and the final stretch started up 3-3.
"It was back and forth," said defenceman Jason Nopper. "It could have gone either way."
Darnell Glass put the Eagles out in front with help from Andrew Boute, who also set up Dan Shermerhorn a little later for a final ditty that sewed the game right up.
With that it was up on the bus and off to Fort Saskatchewan for a rematch with the Chiefs, who squeaked out a win against Innisfail in the last head to head.
That Dec. 15 evening started with some great plays on both ends of the rink.
During the first Eagles penalty the home team had little trouble passing but couldn't seem to find the net, which drew the ire of their coach.
The Eagles were in a similar spot, making loads of softhanded manoeuvres, but falling just short of capitalizing.
"All pucks go to the net!" Sutter bellowed from the bench. It wasn't long before the boys got the message.
Connecting the dots from Dan Shermerhorn and Jeff MacPhee, Jason Nopper rifled one at the net from the point through a screen, lighting up the goal at 10:45.
From then on there was no looking back, as Jasen Kipling came up with some big saves for the team.
Less than halfway through the game Chiefs goalie Jim Watt was laid out with a groin injury, with no backup netminder in sight.
So over the course of an unscheduled 15-minute intermission Lee Zalaski, a forward, who had already been tapped to fill in on defence for his team, was now called upon to occupy the office between the posts.
Surprisingly, the change shifted momentum and took the Eagles off their top form.
"You know what? I didn't think we played that well," said Buote. "I think we kind of changed our game once their goalie got hurt and they put a player in net. We kind of let up. We got lucky."
Though the Eagles had been up 3-0, about five minutes into the third the Chiefs knocked in their first. But Boute netted another for Innisfail within the fourteenth minute of play, deflating any remaining hopes of a comeback for the home squad.
Now the stage is set for Wednesday night's away game against Bentley, the league leaders, which promises to be a barnburner.
