Photo by Paul Wright

On Sunday night, the Stoney Creek Tigers and Innisfail Eagles took to the ice at the J.L. Grightmire Arena to play their first game of the 2024 Allan Cup Challenge tournament in Dundas, Ontario. The Tigers would hold a three-goal advantage after two periods and held on as Innisfail scored three times in the third.

Stoney Creek came out shooting early, but the Eagles’ netminder Travis Yonkman stood tall. The first goal of the game came 5:40 into the period when the Tigers’ Michael Ruberto and Cordell James went in on a two-on-one and Ruberto taking a soft pass and tapping in for a 1-0 lead.

The Tigers jumped out to a two-goal lead just 58 seconds into the second on Josh Ranalli’s goal. Stoney Creek extended their lead to three when Bo Webster picked up a loose puck and walked into the Eagles zone and snapped a wrister at 9:57 of the middle stanza. From there the hitting picked up with some massive hits being made by both squads.

The score could have been even more lopsided, but Yonkman kept his team in it with some big saves, including a pair of pad saves with just over three minutes remaining in the second. However, seconds later, Stoney Creek made it 4-0 on Stephen Thorne’s goal. Innisfail would get the goose egg off the board prior to the buzzer sounding to end the middle frame as Colten Hayes got the Eagles on the board with 26 ticks left on the clock.

Innisfail started to pressure Stoney Creek in the third but at 12:25 of the period Ruberto’s shot from the point went off a stick and fluttered over the goalie, into the net. That goal lit a fire under the Eagles who then came back to score a pair of goals in 44 seconds, making it a two-goal game with 6:27 left on the clock. The first came when Shawn Bates’ knuckler handcuffed Daniel Svedin followed by Jesse Lees finding the back of the net.

Dan Vandeermeer made the final two minutes of regulation interesting as his shot went off the end boards, ricocheted back towards the Stoney Creek net and went of Svedin’s skate, trickling over the goal line. That goal set off a made scramble in the final 90 seconds which saw Innisfail trying to get their goalie off for an extra attacker. Unfortunately, for the Eagles, they would only get 30 seconds with the extra attacker but were unable to get the equalizer.

Svedin picked up the win, allowing four goals on 34 shots while Yonkman made 39 saves on the night in the loss.

Innisfail will not get much time to regroup as they return to the ice on Monday night to face the host Dundas Real McCoys. For Stoney Creek, they will be back in action on Tuesday night when they take on the Southern Shore Breakers. Games both nights start at 7:30pm at the J.L. Grightmire Arena

Players of the Game
Innisfail Eagles – Shawn Bates (1G)
Stoney Creek Tigers – Michael Ruberto (2G, 1A, GWG)

Single game tickets are available at the J.L. Grightmire Arena doors on game days approximately 90 minutes before game time..

For the 2024 edition of the Allan Cup Challenge, fans can get the schedule, scores, standings and stats on GameSheet by clicking here and searching for “Allan Cup Challenge” or use the QR code located on the home page of the Allan Cup Hockey website.

Following the round robin, the first-place team will receive a bye to Saturday’s championship game at 3pm on CHCH TV.  The first-place team will take on the winner Friday night’s semi-final game between the teams that finish the round robin in second and third place. The semi-final game will be played at 7:30pm. The semi-final will be shown live in the Hamilton area on Cable 14. Both the semi-final and championship games will be streamed live online at https://cable14now.com/live-streams/.

Upcoming Games
Monday April 22
Innisfail vs Dundas – 7:30pm

Tuesday April 23
Southern Shore vs Stoney Creek – 7:30pm

Wednesday April 24
Southern Shore vs Innisfail – 3:00pm
Dundas vs Stoney Creek – 7:30pm

Friday April 26
Semi Final – 3rd Place vs 2nd Place – 7:30pm

Saturday April 27
Championship – SF Winner vs 1st Place – 3:00pm