The Bentley Generals and Innisfail Eagles will meet in the Alberta senior AAA hockey championship series for the second year in succession.
The Generals punched their ticket to the provincial final Friday with a 7-2 thumping of the visiting Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs, while the Eagles advanced Saturday with a 4-0 victory over the host Okotoks Drillers. Both best-of-seven series were over in five games.
The Eagles got a 39-save, shutout performance from Steven Stanford at Okotoks. Tylor Keller, Justin Cox, Chad Ziegler and Kyle Lapenske scored fior Innisfai, which led 1-0 after both the first and second periods before putting the game away in the final 20 minutes.
Todd Ford stopped 34 shots as the losing netminder. The Eagles were two-for-seven on the power play, with the Drillers going zero-for-four.
On Friday, the Generals got first-period goals from Cam Maclise and Torrie Dyck and never looked back. Kyle Bailey notched a pair of second-period markers — on the power play and short-handed — for the winners, who got additional goals from Eric Schneider, Daniel Gendur and Kyle Sheen.
Jamie Marshall and Doug Auchenberg netted third-period goals for the Chiefs, who musted only 14 shots at Bentley netminder Dustin Butler. Fort Saskatchewan goaltender David Tetrault looked at 33 shots.
The Generals capitalized on two of four power play opportunties. The Chiefs were zero-for-six with a man advantage.
Dates for the best-of-seven provincial final have not been set.