INNISFAIL EAGLES WIN 2025 VANBERG CUP
The Innisfail Eagles won the 30th Vanberg Cup on Saturday, downing the defending NCHL champion Lacombe Generals 7-2 in game 5 of the best of 7 NCHL finals in Lacombe. The Eagles will now go on to represent the NCHL in the Alberta Senior AA Provincials that will be held in Lethbridge April 3-6.
The Generals had gotten back into the series with a 4-3 win at home last Sunday, however the Eagles came back with a 5-1 home ice win on Friday, and finished off the series with their convincing win yesterday.
The Eagles, who finished the regular season in 3rd place, won the championship in their first year in the NCHL after joining the league with the Stony Plain Eagles last spring as the Chinook Hockey League came to an end. The Hinton Heat (1995-96), Drayton Valley Wildcats (1997-98), Devon Barons (2012-13), Daysland North Stars (2015-16) and Camrose Crush (2021-22) are the only other teams to win the Vanberg Cup in their inaugural season in the North Central Hockey League.
Innisfail's road to the championship started in Devon where the Barons, who were last season's Vanberg Cup finalist, had a 2-1 games lead, with both of their wins coming in overtime. Innisfail came back to win games 4 and 5 to move on to the semi finals versus Wetaskiwin. The Longhorns took the first game 5-1 and the Eagles came back to win 3 straight (including 2 in overtime) to take the series in 4 games.
In game 5, Eagle's Chase Thudium 2-2-4, Chance Longjohn 0-3-3, Mike Marianchuk 2-0-2 lead the way with singles going to Nick Bell, Quintin Lisoway and Tyler Berkholtz. The Generals Thomas Beretta scored both goals for Lacombe.
INNISFAIL
LACOMBE
