INNISFAIL – Just four days after winning the North Central Hockey League’s Vanberg Cup, Innisfail Eagles players and staff gathered in their dressing room at the Innisfail Twin Arena on March 26 and were in high spirits for a scheduled practice.
They were champions after all.
They overcame any and all adversity in their inaugural year in the NCHL senior men’s hockey league, and ultimately won it all through perseverance, teamwork and their pure love of the game.
They had hoped to go even further.
The Eagles were all set to head to Lethbridge from April 3 to 6 to win the 2024-25 Hockey Alberta Senior Men’s AA Provincial championship.
It was not to be.
‘Difficult decision’
On May 26, Hockey Alberta cancelled the tournament, announcing it was a “difficult decision” after learning two leagues had made last-minute decisions to pull out.
“With only three teams committed from two leagues the tournament was no longer viable or truly representative of a provincial championship,” said a Hockey Alberta media release.
Spirits may have been still high in the Eagles’ dressing room on March 26 but the shocking development was on everyone’s mind.
The thrill of a Vanberg Cup title from the weekend before was mixed with deep disappointment.
“After winning this league, I don't think we really soaked it in too much because we were goal driven, and our focus was going on to provincials and winning,” said Eagles forward Dave Nippard. “To have that taken from us unexpectedly is very disappointing.”
Shortly before what would become the team’s final practice of the season, head coach Ryan Dodd spoke to his players about how the Innisfail Eagles organization tried to find a solution with Hockey Alberta and Lethbridge organizers to continue with the tournament, even an abbreviated version.
But the door remained shut.
“I proposed to Hockey Alberta and Lethbridge that we’ll come down and we'll play in your rink. We were coming anyway. We got the funds to go, and they still turned us down,” said Dodd. “The real losers are senior hockey, because it's a black eye without having the tournament.”
Team president Randy Graham is no stranger to provincial senior men’s hockey tournaments.
He was an Eagles player on a team in the 2012–13 season that won the Alberta senior AA championship when the provincial tournament was held in Innisfail.
Graham said losing a chance to compete at this year’s provincial championship is not only a disappointment for the Eagles players and organization but also for the community.
“There's members of the community that were already looking for hotels because they were going to go down and make a weekend of it and watch us play down there,” said Graham. “It's not just the players in our room or the board of directors.
“Our community is really upset as well. It’s frustrating,” he said. “But at the end of the day we did win the Vanberg Cup, and we won the league championship and that's something we can be very proud of.”
Wade Waters is a veteran senior men’s hockey goalie who came back to play for the Eagles following an absence of a dozen years.
He has played with many other teams, including three Allan Cup winners, but for him the Innisfail Eagles are the best team he has ever played for.
Like all the rest of the Eagles he’s disappointed the provincials were cancelled and is left wondering whether the tournament should be moved to a more central location to cut down on travel times and cost.
“Maybe in Central Alberta so it’s less travel. It’s the same amount of travel for everybody,” he said. “And that gives the north (teams) an opportunity to come, the south an opportunity to come, and even central, and maybe have it in Red Deer in the middle of the province, or Edmonton or Calgary.”
Return to Innisfail
However, Graham and Dodd both like the idea of taking the bull by the horns and bringing back the senior men’s AA provincial championship tournament to Innisfail.
The organization came close to hosting the Allan Cup tourney this year but had to bow out because of their move to the NCHL.
“We knocked it out of the park,” said Graham of the 2012–13 experience in Innisfail. “It was the first year Brian Sutter was on board. There was a bid opportunity for the provincials, and we won it, and it was a great tournament.
“We ended up winning in our home barn,” he added. “I think that would be a great event to host in our community.”
Dodd has been ‘Mr. Everything” for the Eagles organization for the past 25 years; a player, a general manager, coach, and even athletic trainer.
But he missed one year of being part of the team on ice since the 1990s, the one when the Eagles hosted the AA provincial tournament.
“Anything we can do to support senior hockey,” said Dodd, conceding Hockey Alberta would have to approve Innisfail as the host community. “Senior hockey's just taking a real kick in the ass again. You lose the Allan Cup, and then the east just seems to be kind of starting to run with it.
“Let's get it back. Let's put it into Central Alberta,” he added. “Lethbridge is too far. The Peace (Country) is too far.
“We got the town that would love to host it. Innisfail deserves something.”
