INNISFAIL – The Rosetown Red Wings had their three-game winning streak come to an end last weekend at the hands of the Innisfail Eagles.
The visiting Red Wings, currently in first place in the Allan Cup Hockey West League, lost a 5-2 decision to the Eagles Sunday afternoon (Jan. 13) at the Arena.
The win moves Innisfail up in standings from fourth to third place with 11 points in the four-team league.
"We did a lot of little things. We hadn't played in a month and that's hard so we had to be ready mentally," said Eagles head coach Brian Sutter. "The Bates line scored some big goals for us tonight."
The Red Wings, coming off a 4-3 win over the Lacombe Generals the night before, showed little signs of fatigue.
Innisfail opened the scoring just past the halfway mark of the first period with a goal from veteran player Ty Clay.
“It's a statement game to beat the top team in the league I think for sure," said Clay. "They're big and fast and they're very skilled. If we give them opportunities, they'll capitalize.”
He noted the big role special teams played in Sunday's game.
“Special teams is huge in this league. Our power play was good tonight; we scored twice on it and we killed a lot of penalties,” said Clay.
"(It’s) not one or two guys that are going to do it every night, it's all 20 of us,” he added, noting the stellar play of goaltender Allen York who made 30 saves on the night.
Rosetown did not go down without a fight, and tied the game at one early in the second period with a power-play goal.
Innisfail answered back with two power-play markers of their own late in the period, with goals from Shawn Bates and Richard Kelly, giving the Birds a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes.
"We knew it was a big one. We've been off for a month and we knew there'd be a little bit of rust but we played well," said Kelly. "We knew they were coming off a game last night so we had to capitalize on that."
The start of the third frame saw Innisfail kill off the remaining three minutes of a four-minute penalty. Shortly after, Rosetown narrowed Innisfail’s lead by one, but Shawn Bates regained the Birds' two-goal lead with his second of the night at the halfway mark of the period.
Forward Kyle Dorowicz netted a short-handed empty net goal in the dying seconds to seal the 5-2 win for Innisfail.
With just a few games left in the regular season, Sutter noted the importance of players contributing their best effort every game.
"We got to play well in every game,” said Sutter. “We know every game is tough and tonight was a huge game."
The Eagles are at home this Friday, Jan. 18, to face the Lacombe Generals. Puck drop is 8:30 p.m.
