A pervasive quiet enveloped the community bus that took the Eagles from the smokestacks of Innisfail into refinery country to face off against the Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs.
Missing a number of top forwards and defencemen, each player worked at getting his game face on, knowing exactly what was at stake – a chance to break the deadlock and emerge as the Senior league's clear leader.
“I was just going through scenarios on the ice, staying focused and trying to get some rest” said left-winger Randy Graham, describing what was going through his mind on the way up as Slap Shot, an iconic hockey film about a fifth-place team rising in the rankings, played in the background. “You laugh at the same lines you've laughed at 100 times.”
Coach Brian Sutter could sense the boys' concern at the thin numbers, but was happy to see the team gearing up for a thriller of a game.
“A lot of the guys I think felt that we were missing six or seven pretty skilled forwards,” he said. “Yeah we were quiet, but quiet's good sometimes. Because sometimes you're thinking.”
The Eagles headed onto an ice surface once graced by the likes of Mike Commodore, Paul Comrie and Zarley Zalapski, looking for a chance to make their own mark.
The Chiefs, for their part, were also down a number of players, including Josh McIlravey who had been sent to the hospital for seven stitches in their outing with Sylvan Lake. The home team coach Scott Chartrand described the match-up as “two teams that haven't been battling for first place in a long time.”
It was with that mindset the Chiefs blasted right out of the gate, with Jamie Marshall knocking one in after less than a minute on an assist from 5-foot 10-inch forward from Sherwood Park, Blair Manning.
“As a player when you've got something like first place on the line you want to do everything in your power to solidify that status,” said Eagles forward Justin Daigle. “It took us a little while to get our feet under us. It usually takes a few minutes, not a whole period.”
The Eagles were badly outplayed in the first frame, their only success to that point in the form of a goal they had managed at the 3:29 mark, which was disallowed.
In the second period the Chiefs racked up a couple more, while the Eagles had little to show for turning on the jets aside from gashes and bruises. Assistant captain Brody Malek was even bodychecked head over heels into the Chiefs' bench at one point. Colin Stebner was hauled in to replace Todd Lafontaine in goal to shift the energy. A solo effort from Jamie Routledge near the end of the period was the point that kept the Eagles in the game.
Sutter headed into the dressing room with a message for the players: it's time to start with a clean slate.
“It's nothing – nothing,” he said. “We're gonna win the third.”
So out of the gate flew the birds of prey. And though it got worse before it got better, with the Chiefs hammering in a fourth, the tide was about to turn.
“We expected them to come out hard and that's what they did – never gave up,” said Chartrand, who had let out some PG-13 language when the referee eventually allowed a shortside Eagles goal, a few minutes after the fact. “They started picking up the pace and we just couldn't really match it there for a bit.”
Tylor Kellor snagged the next one, before Bobby Coles tied it up with just over seven minutes left on the clock. The Eagles even banged out another, but it was disallowed because it went in off a skate.
“We did come all the way down to four – one to go ahead five – four and they took that away from us,” Sutter said. “Hockey is sometimes like pool. It's not what you get – it's what you leave.”
Ultimately the Eagles gave up the puck in overtime and Chiefs Assistant Jamie Marshall whacked in the game winner, for the sudden death 5-4 knockout.
But on the way back as the guys, who have come from far and wide to play without a salary for a team prepared by a coach without a paycheque, chatted about their experiences in minor leagues across North America and Europe, you got the sense that they knew they were winners, after all.
