(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Ian Gustafson

In the Hunt

Innisfail Eagles look to solidify playoff seeding in final weeks of regular season

Jan 15, 2025 | 12:06 PM

Coming down the home stretch of the season, the Innisfail Eagles are in prime playoff position but are hoping for better.

With just two games left in the North Central Senior AA Hockey League (NCHL) regular season, the Eagles are in third place in the standings, trailing the second place Wetaskiwin Longhorns by one point.

The Stony Plain Eagles are just one point behind Innisfail in fourth place. Meanwhile, the Lacombe Generals have first place locked up and the President’s Cup, which is awarded to the team with the best record.

Eagles assistant coach Kent Wing said playoff seeding will most likely come down to the last game of the season.

“It’s going to be very exciting these next couple of weeks seeing and watching the online tracker. Our home games we always have the computer set up on the desk in the coaches room where we’re always checking the out of town scores during the intermission,” he said.

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“We’re looking forward to the next few weeks and it’ll be exciting to get into a playoff run and do what we can do.”

The Eagles joined the league this past summer after spending years in the Chinook Hockey League along with Stony Plain.

After the league folded, they weighed their options before joining the NCHL. Wing said their first year in the league has been fun.

“Just getting some new teams to play against. The last few years of playing Stony over and over again has gotten a little old,” he said.

“It’s been a little bit of a fun challenge for us preparing for games not necessarily knowing what the offence or the defence of the other team is going to look like. We maybe got a little complacent the last couple of years going into Stony knowing exactly who to key on.”

So far, it’s turned into on-ice success posting a 9-4-0-0-1 record. Wing said they haven’t been able to play with their full lineup of players due to work commitments for players.

“All in all we’re definitely happy with where we’ve gotten to at this point in the year,” Wing added.

“Obviously, we had a bit of a hiccup on the weekend in Wetaskiwin where we went down 7-2 but they’re a heck of a team… Hopefully we can finish out the year strong over our next two games and go into playoffs with a full healthy lineup.”

Innisfail will host the Westlock Warriors this Saturday for their final regular season home game at the Innisfail Twin Arena at 8 p.m. before wrapping up the season on Jan. 25 in Stony Plain.

Wing said this Saturday’s game is all about recovering from last weekend’s setback in Wetaskiwin.

“It’s the last regular season home game so we definitely want to put on a good show for our crowd. We’ve had good fan support all year so it would be nice to pull out a big win at home,” he said.

“Next weekend in Stony is probably the biggest game of the year for us… We have such a historic rivalry with these guys that if we can’t get up for that game you probably don’t belong in the lineup. We definitely want to finish ahead of Stony.”