INNISFAIL – It was a case of déjà vu at the Innisfail Twin Arena on March 2.
The Innisfail Eagles fell behind in the first period, and roared back with five answered goals to win the game 7-3.
It mirrored the local Birds’ performance on Feb. 17 when they fell behind early during the last game of the Chinook Hockey League’s regular season, and scored five unanswered goals to win the league championship by a convincing 9-3 margin.
But on March 2, the stakes were even higher; the defence of Innisfail’s senior men’s AAA provincial championship against long-time archrival Stony Plain Eagles to earn an April return trip to Ontario to play in the national Allan Cup championship.
“They (Stony Plain) have hot starts. We’ve seen that in the last two games,” said Innisfail forward Chase Thudium. “We've found that we got pretty good legs. We got four lines that can really skate and I think we just wear them down.
“For us to keep the game close after that first period was huge, and then everything just started to click for us in the third period.”
The first 20 minutes was good old-fashioned hockey between two highly skilled teams who do not like each other. The action was fast and intense with both teams having many good scoring chances.
Innisfail took an early 2 – 1 lead with goals from Parker Smyth and Quinton Lisoway but Stony roared back to take a 3-2 lead after 20 minutes.
There was less intensity in the second period but both teams still had plenty of chances but Innisfail goalie Chance Clark and Stony netminder Wyatt Hoflin were solid.
After 40 minutes it was still 3-2 for the northern Birds.
But like the league championship game back on Feb. 17 Innisfail showed everyone in the rink that the southern Birds have a mighty powerful second gear.
Innisfail scored three times within the first three minutes of the third period on goals by Mike Marianchuk, Ty Clay and Lisoway’s second of the game.
And there was more. Clay got his second goal close to the mid-point of the final period and Thudium capped off his team’s offensive explosion with just under four minutes remaining.
Innisfail won 7-3 to take the first game of the best of five provincial championship series.
“I think we’re a little bit more conditioned than them (Stony) and we took advantage of that in the third period,” said Innisfail captain Joe Vandermeer, adding his team still has some work to do to ensure success in the championship series. “I think in the first two periods we were giving up too many odd man rushes. They (Stony) capitalized. They are good at transitioning, so we got to make sure we got that third guy high.”
Following the game Ryan Dodd, the team’s general manager and assistant coach, noted his team had to kill many penalties early, which did result in one Stony powerplay goal and a 3-2 lead after 20 minutes.
“We practise to play 60 minutes, so we figure if we’re down one or two it’s fine. We're OK,” said Dodd. “We'll just keep on coming, and we just kept on coming and coming and that's what it shows.
“The first period they're up by a goal, the second period nobody scores and the third period we come out and dominate.”
As pleased as Dodd was with the 7-3 win he does want his team to work on game composure for the rest of the way against Stony Plain.
“We can penalty kill. That was evident tonight. We can score on the power play, and we score five-on-five,” he added. “When we lose our composure and lose our focus the game gets away from us a little bit.
“And when we go up there we really have to dial it in because we will sit in the penalty box,” added Dodd. “And these guys (Stony Plain) are a very skilled hockey team.”
As for Stony Plain, the Albertan attempted to get comments from them after the game but the team declined.
The second game of the best of five series will be in Stony Plain on March 16.
The series then switches back to Innisfail for the third game on March 22. Puck drop is 8 p.m.
If a fourth game is necessary it’s back to Stony Plain on March 23, with a potential fifth and final game scheduled for March 30.
