In their first season in the league, The Innisfail Eagles are North Central Senior AA Hockey League champions.
The Eagles beat the Lacombe Generals 7-2 Saturday night in Game 5 to win the best-of-seven Vanberg Cup Final 4-1.
Sylvan Lake's Chase Thudium scored two goals and added two assists to lead the way for the Eagles.
Innisfail got off to an early 2-0 start with goals by Thudium and Tyler Berholtz less than five minutes into the game.
Lacombe was able to get on the board on the power play with Thomas Beretta finding the back of the net.
Mike Marianchuk put Innisfail up 3-1 with 3:22 left in the first, before Beretta notched his second power play goal of the night late in the period to make it 3-2 going into the first intermission.
Nick Bell scored the only goal of the second giving the Eagles a 4-2 lead heading into the third.
Thudium scored his second of the night and 12th of the playoffs on the power play early in the final frame to put Innisfail up 5-2.
Marianchuk scored an empty-netter with 3:09 remaining and Quintin Lisoway added another goal for Innisfail to seal the 7-2 victory in front of 850 fans at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex in Lacombe.
The Generals outshot the Eagles 30-23 on the night. Innisfail was 1-for-2 on the power play, while Lacombe finished 2-for-3.
Chance Griffin was named Finals MVP for the Eagles finishing the playoffs with a .927 save percentage and a 2.47 GAA.
"When you can go in and deliver a victory over the defending champs in their own barn, it’s pretty sweet," said Head Coach and General Manager Ryan Dodd. "They (Lacombe) are a great team and a top-shelf organization. They played us tough the whole way through, but this group of guys is something special. You can feel it in the dressing room as well as on the ice – I’m proud of this team and what we’ve accomplished this year.”
Thudium led all scorers in the playoffs with 22 points, including 12 goals and 10 assists.
The Eagles finished the 2024-25 playoffs going 10-4 after finishing the regular season 11-4-0-0-1.
Lacombe was looking to win its third straight Vanberg Cup after finishing the regular season in first place with a 14-2-0-0-0 record.
The win marks the Eagles' first NCHL Senior AA championship. The Eagles won Alberta Sr. AAA Championships in 2022 and 2023.
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