BENTLEY, Alberta – The Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs have emerged from a wicked Semi-Final firewagon run with Stony Plain Eagles. All told, 57 goals scored in 5 games of a series that belonged, start to finish, to the home team. Culminating in a winner take all feast of offence in which the home town Chiefs took an early 3-0 lead, smoked out with a run of 4 straight Stony powerplay goals, ending with Fort blazing back with 5 unanswered for an 8-4 final score. It turns out the best shot of the series wasn’t launched off composite enhanced stick torque. Nope. That shot will forever belong to Eagles’ Head Coach, Mike Tavaroli, who reacted to some questionable bodily contact he had seen by calling the Chiefs ‘gutless cowards’ in the middle of a seething post game rant after his club dropped game 3 of the series; 7-5. You could almost hear the ring off the post and into the (‘inter’) net. Tavaroli’s team then took game 4, 5-4 in double overtime, with former Habs 6th round pick Boyd Olson burying the winner. That victory came at a high cost for Stony Plain. Goaltender, Sean Fields, pulled his groin before 2 minutes of the game had transpired. Veteran back-up Jason Fricker came in relief, stopping 39 of 43 shots. It was Stony Plains’ best effort in several weeks, but the Eagles were unable to duplicate in game 5. The top 3 scorers in the series were Eagles’ top line of Doug Auchenberg, Tate Locke and Brandt Middleton which generated 11 goals. Stony can’t blame their fate on a lack of scoring. Scoring 26 times, they could not contain the relentless rushing attack of their uber-talented opposition Led by defenceman Benjamin Lindemulder’s 4 goals and 6 assists, Fort Saskatchewan established a rushing attack that never blinked in the bright glare of a goal light. The racing pace everyone anticipated the 2006 Alberta Champs’ would bring was simply too fast for Stony Plain to keep up and it showed in the last period of the Eagles season. Blair Manning set up Jaime Marshall, twice, in the period. Both times toying with the Eagles as they seemed tortured by the effort of constant back checking to the puck only to see it passed away to wide open shooters pouring like gasoline onto the inferno. From a neutral vantage, Tavaroli’s decision to take issue with some questionable hits may have been somewhat warranted but the wording was over the top. This is a cocky, dangle-happy crew of quality Chief players who sometimes lost composure in an emotional series they desired to win…burningly. Calling them out? It fanned the flames and the fire went straight for Stony’s net. Having vanquished Stony Plain, its a short 48 hour turnaround in Chief-town. The upstarts will board the bus to begin the best of seven Alberta Finals on March 19th in Bentley, home of the 2009 Allan Cup Champions. The mighty Generals might be rusty after a 2 week layoff between their Chinook League Championship over these same Chiefs. Coach Brian Sutter ran a series of practices to fine tune his team and off-set the down time. While it’s impossible to simulate the brand of hockey the Chiefs will bring to Bentley…it’s equally impossible to simulate what awaits the Chiefs when they roll into the home of the 2009 Allan Cup Champions. They are, officially, the best amateur hockey team in Canada. Coached by a Jack Adams Award winner; a line-up featuring enough size and skill to run AHL teams down and, of course, a fan-cult that fills the home rink with hysterical energy and noise. In 2 full seasons, the Generals have lost a total of once at home. That was the opening game of their 2009 Provincial playoffs, it was a series which eventually went a full seven games before ‘The Army’ prevailed and it was blackout inducing tension to the hilt. It was against? The Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs. Contact Wade.Giesbrecht@prohockeynews.com
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