INNISFAIL – The local men’s senior AA hockey Birds begin their first ever playoffs in the North Central Hockey League on the road Friday (Feb. 7) and head coach Ryan Dodd is peeved.
His Innisfail team that finished in third place in the nine-team league (NCHL) standings should be playing at home to start the opening quarter-final playoffs against the sixth place Devon Barons.
Instead, they have to hit the Highway 2 freeway and drive 170 kilometres north to Devon’s Dale Fisher Arena for the first game of the best of five series.
And then the Birds must come back to Innisfail for game 2 on Sunday (Feb. 9).
In fact, if the series goes a full five games the Eagles and Barons will have played five games in nine days.
What’s also annoying for many players on both teams is they have to play on Feb. 14, which of course is Valentine’s Day.
And what was most frustrating for Dodd was that he was told by the town the ice at the Innisfail Twin Arena was not available for Dec. 7, one day before the Innisfail Skating Club’s Skating With Heart 2025 event on Saturday, Dec. 8.
“I'm assuming they're setting up for this weekend,” said Dodd. “Now we have to play on Super Bowl Sunday, which means we'll have a terrible turnout, and then we're playing Valentine's Day, which means a lot of people will be going home for supper with their wife or doing something.
“It’s not ideal for us,” he said, adding it was almost impossible for his team to tell the town when they needed playoff dates as the NCHL regular season did not end until the first week of February. “I didn't even know who we were playing, so I don't know where we'll be or when we play.
“I have doing this for many years and I understand how playoffs work and it's not that we're asking for special treatment,” said Dodd. “We just need some cooperation.”
Dodd said he turned to Innisfail Minor Hockey Association officials for help and he was finally able to secure a home date for Feb. 14.
“They moved some things around and they were very accommodating and helped us immensely,” said Dodd. “We weren’t going to be given that ice, so we would have had to have played during the week somewhere.”
But there will be a series and Dodd and his Birds managed to get a practice in on Feb. 5.
They will now continue their plan to go all the way in the playoffs to win the Vanberg Cup, awarded to the NCHL champions.
Part of the plan, said Dodd, is to utilize a strategy employed by former Eagles coach Brian Sutter.
“Many years ago, Brian wrote on the whiteboard in the dressing room, and he asked the guys, what are the six Ps?’’’ said Dodd. “Perfect Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. That’s what the six Ps are.
“What does that mean? It means we're going to have a good skate at practice Wednesday night. We're going to go through our PK (penalty kill). We’re going to go through our power play,” he added. “We'll go through our breakout, we'll talk about a few face-off strategies, and then we're going to have a day of rest.
“We're going to be prepared to go to work in Devon,” he said. “It's going to be five games in nine nights. Whoever stays healthy throughout the playoffs will be the team that will probably come out on top.”
Innisfail defeated Devon in both their games this season.
They won 7-5 at home on Nov. 23 and then 4-2 in Devon on Dec. 21.
Dodd said his team will not take Devon for granted.
“They're a good hockey team,” said Dodd. “Everybody picks up their level of play in the playoffs.
“So yes, we got to do the same thing.”
Below is the schedule for the five-game quarter-final series against Devon.
• Game 1: Friday, Feb. 7 – Devon, puck drop at 8 p.m.;
• Game 2: Sunday, Feb. 9 – Innisfail, puck drop at 5 p.m.;
• Game 3: Friday, Feb. 14 – Innisfail, puck drop TBA;
• Game 4 (if necessary): Saturday, Feb. 15 – Devon, puck drop at 8 p.m. and,
• Game 5 (if necessary): Sunday, Feb. 16 – Innisfail, puck drop at 2:30 p.m.
