Innisfail Eagles head coach Brian Sutter was not a happy man following his team's opening game of the 2019 Allan Cup in Lacombe. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

penalty problems

Innisfail Eagles lose opener of 2019 Allan Cup

Apr 8, 2019 | 7:16 PM

A tightly-contested affair kicked off the 2019 Allan Cup in Lacombe on Monday afternoon.

The Innisfail Eagles wound up dropping the opener of the national senior AAA men’s hockey championship 4-3 to their Allan Cup Hockey West league rival, the Rosetown Red Wings.

Rosetown drew first blood on their first shot of the game from Jeremy Boyer 5:38 into period one.

The Eagles tied it at 16:30 on a tally from Chris Bailer.

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However, Justin Fox gave Rosetown a 2-1 lead with a powerplay goal with 29 seconds left in the period.

The two teams traded goals in period two with Brayden Atkinson scoring on a powerplay for Rosetown and Shawn Bates even strength for Innisfail.

Tyler Beechy tied the game for the Eagles 5:15 into period three.

Jordan Johnston netted the game winner for Rosetown on a powerplay at the 12:13 mark.

Eagles head coach Brian Sutter lamented the three powerplay goals his team surrendered.

“You can’t take Mickey Mouse chicken manure penalties. All three penalties had nothing to do with what was going on on the ice. They’re good offensively, and our powerplay didn’t get nothing,” he lamented.

“You can’t do stupid things and yap back at the referee, and push back after the whistles. I learned that in Mighty Mite. We know we’re better than that.”

Johnston was all smiles after his team’s tournament opening win.

“They’re a good team, they play hard and to get a win against them is nice. The powerplay was clicking, and we’ve been switching things up lately in practice because it’s been abysmal all year, but it seemed to be working tonight,” he said.

“We knew it was going to be a battle, and we knew it wasn’t going to be a three-goal game.”

Innisfail outshot Rosetown 37-27 with Brody Hoffman outduelling Allen York between the pipes.

Innisfail plays next on Tuesday at 4 p.m. versus Stoney Creek.