The Innisfail Eagles claimed their home and season opening game in a convincing manner on Oct. 17 with a 7 – 2 victory over the Stony Plain Eagles.
A crowd of more than 600 fans cheered their senior men's Eagles squad to a strong victory against their northern namesake rivals, who were outmatched by the speed of coach Brian Sutter's team throughout the game.
The Eagles' Travis Dunstall notched the first goal of the season with Brendan Baumgartner and Jeff Macphee assisting 80 seconds into the game. A short 45 seconds later, Chad Ziegler scored his first of three goals on the night from Andrew Bergmann to make the game 2-0 early in the first frame.
At 15:40 of the first period, Mark Bomersback and Drew Coles combined to make the game 3-0.
Dunstall took a pass from line mate Jeff Macphee to turn the game into an almost insurmountable lead at 3:29 of the second period for his second goal of the game.
Replying for Stony Plain at 5:24, Derek Coats broke the shutout with a pass from Jordan Kolisniak to make the game 4-1 for the hometown Birds.
On an Eagles power play after Kelly Fulmer of the Stony Plain Eagles was sent to the box for slashing, Ziegler scored his second goal from Joe Vandemeer and Drew Coles. A minute later, Stony Plain's Michael Desjarlais scored on a pass from Andre Herman to make the game 5-2 for the Innisfail squad to round out scoring in the second period.
In the third period, the Eagles' Ziegler and Brendan Baumgartner scored to make the game 7-2, and that is the way it stayed until the final buzzer.
In goal for the Innisfail Eagles, Steven Stanford was solid stopping 32 of 34 shots during the contest.
“The boys played a heck of game,” said Sutter. “We were able to stay out of the penalty box and as the game went on we got better.”
Sutter added that he thought the team was off to a good start early in the season and that if his team stayed out of the penalty box they would do well.
Ziegler was named the Innisfail Eagles' home star while Colin Taylor was earned the nod as Stony Plain's best player of the night.
The Eagles take on the Okotoks Drillers on Oct. 24 at the Innisfail Arena. Game time is 8:30 p.m. Information on the Innisfail Eagles and schedules can be found at www.chinookhockeyleague.com or www.innisfaileagles.com.
