The Army is headed east on a mission.The Bentley Generals target is the Allan Cup.
“To get so close last year and to lose in the final, it just eats away at you all summer,” said Generals Head Coach Ryan Tobler. “We achieved our goals. We wanted to win the Chinook Hockey League and then provincials and here we go again.”
The Generals have made a habit of going again with quite a history when it comes to the Senior AAA Hockey championship. The team has been to the final game six times, winning the title twice since the club was formed in 1999. This year they are looking for number three and Tobler feels the 2016 CHL playoff run might be the catalyst for the championship hat trick.
“We weren’t pushed in the provincials the last couple of years and hopefully this can prepare us a little better to play those tight games, those close games, meaningful games.”
The Generals were taken to the limit by the Innisfail Eagles with a game seven overtime showdown and then Stony Plain went five hard fought games concluding with a thrilling double overtime win for Bentley.
If those two series don’t get you ready, nothing will.
“You hope to lean on some of those experiences because the tournament (Allan Cup) is very, very good hockey,” said Tobler.
It’s a tournament which Captain Don Morrison is familiar with as he is headed to Allan Cup number eight.
“They’re each unique but the competition itself is the best in the country so each one is always a little different how it plays out,” he said.
He says each time he has headed to the Allan Cup he feels his team has the best chance to win. He also points to the battles the Generals faced with Innisfail and Stony Plain this year saying those gave them some resilience. It could add up to a winning campaign in Manitoba.
“Two years ago we lost in the semi-final and last year in the final so it could potentially be that bit that can push us over the edge, for sure.”
Tobler says the Generals will need to be ready to go right away in order to win those first two games to be rewarded with the bye, something which can prove to be very valuable at the end of the round robin. The game plan is simply take care of your own game and not worry about what the other teams are doing.
Both agree, as cliché as it is, this tournament is really about taking care of things one shift at a time.
“You rely in your conditioning, your character, your experience that we’ve gained here. This is my fourth Allan Cup in a row and I know I’ve learned a lot and so has the core that we have,” said Tobler.
Morrison says if there’s one thing he’s learned over the years is you just take all you have done as a team to this point, toss it away and crank it up another three notches.
“Then we’ll be playing at the level that the Allan Cup competition is going to be at,” he said.
Tobler says the style for the Generals won’t change in Manitoba. They will still take care of their own end, playing hard from the goal out and force teams to play the 200 foot game.
“We’re not going to go there looking to run and gun with anybody,” he said. “You rely on what got you there and you don’t go reinventing the wheel.”
He says the experience playing in the small rinks where the tournaments are usually held is absolutely electric and the rookies on the team should embrace the atmosphere.
“When you have a rink that only holds two or three thousand people and you pack it like we did in Lacombe it can be a lot of fun for the guys. It’s exciting for a bunch of guys who work 9 to 5 and still get to play hockey in atmospheres like that.”
They say an army travels on its stomach. This one seems to have quite an appetite for a national championship.
The Generals first test is Tuesday against the Stoney Creek Generals.
