BENTLEY, Alberta – The defending Allan Cup Champions are fortifying themselves for another big run in 2010. The Bentley Generals have staked claim to 1rst place in the Chinook Hockey League with a white-hot 14-1 win-to-loss ratio and have just five games left to clean up on their 20 game league schedule. Last weekend, the Generals (known as “The Army” around Central Alberta) served up a statement by hammering top rivals, the Stony Plain Eagles; 6-1. Almost all the gunning was done during the second period. Bentley shattered the silence of a scoreless opening 20 minutes when Tyler Haarstad scored less than a minute into the middle stanza. When the smoke cleared, Stony was buckshot. Down 5-0 on subsequent shots from Chris Martini, Sean Robertson, Curtis Austring and Haarstad, bookending the run-and-gun play with 1:33 left. Robertson added another in the third period as well. Blair Hennes broke Scott Galenza’s shutout with Stony’s goal on the power play very late in a convincing, if not vintage, General’s performance. It was the fourth consecutive loss Stony has sustained in the new year which, contrasted with the Gens’ win streak stretching to nine games, landed the Eagles a full 11 points behind the league leaders and only 6 games left in the regular season. For Stony Plain, the damage was likely done before this loss. Still in the hunt, starting January with just one regulation loss, the new decade brought a cataclysmic string of games: The Eagles gave up 22 goals in 3 games prior to pulling into “Army-Town”. Last year this kind of porous defense was unthinkable in Stony Plain with former ECHL star Cody Rudkowsky taking care of the cage. ‘Rudy’ returned to the pro ranks (EIHL) in the summer and Stony signed another former ECHL player and Boston University Alumni; Sean Fields, hoping he could fill the void. However, if Stony Plain is going to turn their season around, Fields has to field pucks better than the .870 save percentage he’s at because that’s not enough for Stony to avoid hearing the bugle sound of Taps anytime they test ‘The Army’. The Generals started out the year anticipating 2 teams to push them for Provincial supremacy: Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs and the aforementioned Eagles. The Chiefs handed Bentley their first loss back in mid-November. A week later, Bentley needed an OT goal from Diarmuid Kelly to get past Stony. Some close calls have come between then and now but a 1rst round Provincial bye is unofficially conceded to Brian Sutter’s “Army” at this point. The Chiefs have faded 8 points off the pace, largely due to 2 losses against Bentley in the past 2 weeks. It appears the ‘push-back’ will be pushed back to playoff time, if it happens at all. You might think now would be the time to rest key players to get them fresh for the playoffs. That’s not the way this General’s war machine rolls though. This time last year the team was undefeated. Instead of standing pat, management went out and signed Brett Thurston and Dion Darling, doubling down the already deadly defensive stalwart. So, it was no surprise when ‘Sergeant Sutter’ stood in front of the press last Saturday, with a fox in the henhouse smile, answering questions about the convincing debut of his latest weapon unleashed; Darren Van Impe: “He was good tonight. He makes it look easy.” Was he deadpanning? With 411 NHL games played and over 600 more around Europe and the AHL, Van Impe is a poltergeist on skates. He transforms from defense to offence and back again so fast, opposition may find it ‘Van Imp-ossible’ to pick him up on the radar. The 6′ 0″ 190 lbs Defenseman still plays his silky smooth style, without the knicks and cuts of a blade, the grey showing in his 36 year old playoff beard. Making matters more imposing for everyone not nicknamed ‘The Army’, Sutter went on to suggest there were more recruits to come before the February 10th signing deadline. “Last year at this time we had four defensemen counting (converted forward) Diarmuid Kelly, we’re not done yet.” A quick scan of their 25 man roster reveals a few vacant slots at the moment, suggesting Sutter is not bluffing. Historically, Allan Cup contestants are notorious for stacking up rosters late into the winter. As each regular season winds down, rumor mills wind up with rampant speculation as to what former NHL and Major Junior walk-off’s or random hired guns may turn up on a Senior team hoping to put themselves over the top. Todd Harvey, Mike Ridley, Theo Fleury, Sasha “The Masha” Lakovic, 50 year old Rick Vaive, a three hundred pound version of Steve Rice, Gino Odjick and Kelly Buchberger have all made cameos in recent National Championship drives. Sometimes big name additions make big impacts. Rice led 2008 Allan Cup Champion Brantford Blast in tournament scoring. The Generals are easily identified as the standard for every other team to be measured. The fact their Alberta counterparts have barely been able to dent Bentley’s armor this season will only serve as motivation for them to do whatever it takes to close the gap. The Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs will be the first to insist it can be done. After being swept in four CHL meetings last winter, they battled Bentley through seven grueling games in a playoff classic, which advanced on the skin of what teeth they had left. The Fort will get one final shot at the Generals on January 23rd at the JRC Arena to gauge where they are prior to the 2010 playoffs. The Chiefs speedy style has been impressive, exciting and even effective in spells. They’ve scored 9 times in 3 games against the 2009 Allan Cup Champions whose team GAA is 2.20 on the year, enough for Chiefs’ Team President, Norm Ziegeman, to retain all 27 players on the roster at the January deadline, entrusting the existing group to take it the rest of the way without making a single cut. Meanwhile, The Stony Plain Eagles will try to tidy the nest with two games against Innisfail, hoping to get airborne before they round out their season set with Bentley at the end of January on back to back home dates. The Eagles can feel the Lloydminster Border Kings closing on them for 3rd place. It was the Kings who, twice, caved in Stony in early January. The good news for Stony Plain is, Lloydminster won’t enter in Alberta come playoff time. The Border City’s two time Allan Cup Championship franchise playoff will be in Saskatchewan instead. The bad news? The Bentley Generals aren’t going anywhere. Wade is the Generals beat writer and is the Senior ‘AAA’ Alberta Columnist for PHN and can be contacted at Wade.Giesbrecht@prohockeynews.com
