INNISFAIL – The league-leading Rosetown Red Wings burned the Innisfail Eagles twice in the Birds’ home rink last weekend, utilizing speed and the power play despite being outshot in both games.
And to add to the Birds’ woes, Rosetown’s Lucas Sutter, the nephew of Eagles head coach Brian Sutter, scored the visiting team’s first goal in Sunday’s game (Jan. 20) to stage a comeback for the Red Wings. Rosetown went on to win Sunday 5 – 1, after defeating the Birds 3 – 1 Saturday night at the Arena after being down 1 – 0 early in the first period but staging its first weekend comeback. Jordie Johnston, who notched three goals last weekend, led the Red Wings. The Birds outshot the Red Wings 38 – 32 in Saturday’s game, and bested Rosetown again on Sunday by a 38 – 31 margin.
"We’re lucky. We’re really deep. We have a group that buys into what the coach has asked of us,” said Sutter of his Rosetown team, which is hosting this year’s Allan Cup in Saskatchewan. "For us there are not a lot of teams in the country that can play with us when we play our game. We are pretty fortunate with our depth and we can put out any line out against anyone and trust they are going to get the job done, and that is what epitomizes a championship team.”
After last weekend’s action, the Rosetown squad is leading the five-team senior men’s Allan Cup Hockey West league with 36 points, followed by perennial champion Lacombe Generals with 34. Innisfail is in fourth place with 13 points, with Fort Saskatchewan in fifth and last place with eight points. The Eagles have four games remaining in the regular season schedule.
Despite the two weekend losses against Rosetown, underscored Sunday by the Red Wings’ three third period power-play goals, Ryan Dodd, the Eagles’ assistant coach and general manager, said both games were evenly played, and that the Birds have had good games against the league leaders all season long.
"It’s a game of inches and you have to capitalize on those opportunities when you get them,” said Dodd, noting the irony of Rosetown’s first goal on Sunday by Lucas Sutter. "You can say it is a bad omen, but it was just a good goal. We missed a man and he buried the puck.”
As for where the Eagles now stand in the regular season, far away from the league leaders, Dodd said the current record does not do justice for the team’s quality effort on the ice.
"We’ve got a great group of guys in here,” he said. "We’ve got the talent to win. We’ve got the know-how to win,” said Dodd, confident his team will put it all together for the upcoming playoffs. "It’s just that we’ve got to put the little pieces together in order to push them all together and make one big W in the middle.”
The Birds’ next game is on Jan. 26 at home when they face the Stony Plain Eagles. The next night they are on the road to play Stony Plain again.
Lucas Sutter, Rosetown forward
"We are pretty fortunate with our depth and we can put out any line out against anyone and trust they are going to get the job done, and that is what epitomizes a championship team."
