The St. Albert Miners are between a rock and a hard place in the provincial lacrosse final after dropping two overtime decisions to the Rockyview Knights.
Last weekend in Airdrie the reigning senior B champions opened the best-of-five series with losses of 8-7 and 10-9 in extra periods.
Head coach Vay Diep said the Miners didn't play to up to their potential.
“The boys know for sure that if we play our best we can easily win this series,” Diep said. “They didn't play a full 60 minutes, a good handful of guys took real undisciplined penalties and another handful of guys didn't play their best ball either. A couple of guys on defence took the easy way out too.”
“We also didn't go down with our best line-up but the call-ups we had from junior B played really well.”
The Miners face an uphill battle in their bid for a provincial three-peat. Game three goes Friday at 8 p.m. at Grant Fuhr Arena in Spruce Grove. If needed, game four is Saturday at 4 p.m. in Spruce Grove and game five is Sunday at 4 p.m. at Ron Ebbesen Arena in Airdrie.
The Miners are unable to use their home floor this weekend at Northstar Hyundai Arena because ice is being installed.
The winner will represent Alberta at the Presidents' Cup national championship, Aug 27 to Sept. 3 in Spruce Grove.
“We've got the talent and the heart to do it, all we've got to do is just be mentally focused for 60 minutes and not take undisciplined penalties,” Diep said. “It's pretty much an elimination game from now on so we just have to try and keep the boys mentally focused. That's the main challenge right now. I told the boys that we're good. Those guys had to go to overtime with us. The series easily could've been 2-0 for us.”
The Miners are 0-6 on the road in three provincial finals. They needed a fifth and deciding game at home to beat the Okotoks Raiders in 2010 and the Knights last year.
The Miners also lost twice to the first-place Knights in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League this year 11-7 in St. Albert and 9-7 in Calgary.
In the playoff lid-lifter the period scores were 2-2 and 5-5. Jarrett Toll's power play marker with 13:13 remaining in the third made it 6-6.
In the 10-minute overtime frame, the Knights struck twice before captain Nate Schmidt fired his second goal of the game with 2:42 to play. Schmidt also had four assists.
In net for the Miners was Dave Marrese.
“Five of the goals they scored on Dave were because we didn't play proper defence,” Diep said.
Schmidt and Chris Buckley scored in the first and junior B affiliate Hugh Saunderson, Jordan Cornfield and Chris Schmidt connected in the second after the Knights jumped ahead by three goals in the opening four minutes of the period.
“The boys came out flat in the second period and spotted them three goals and we had to dig ourselves out of a hole,” Diep said.
Both teams were assessed 14 penalty minutes. The Miners capitalized twice on the power play and the Knights once with the man advantage.
In game two the Miners led 3-2 after the first before the roof caved in. The Knights scored four straight on the strength of three power play goals and added another marker before the period ended tied at seven apiece.
Nate Schmidt singlehandedly willed the Miners back into contention with four consecutive goals in the second during a run of six in a row by the league's most prolific scorer in 2012. His last four goals were on the power play, including the 8-7 go-ahead marker in the third.
“I don't know what more I can say about the guy. He was unreal. So was Dave. Those guys easily gave us an opportunity to win both games or even split the series,” Diep said.
Chris Schmidt shorthanded and Nick Petz scored in the first and Sean Reid drilled a shot with 1:49 left in the third to force OT.
In regulation time the Knights cashed in four power play goals, but their most damaging score was the even strength tally with 7:32 left in OT.
“That one really stung the boys. They scored with too many men in overtime. It was blatantly six guys on the floor. The ref saw them and didn't make the call,” Diep said.
At the end of the game, Ted White of the Miners was assessed a gross misconduct. The Knights were whistled for eight minutes, including a holding penalty with 2:10 to go in OT. The Miners were called for five minors and one major in the first two periods.
Diep said the Miners didn't get any bounces in Airdrie.
“In both instances when it was tied we had last shot. In game one Jordan misses his shot by within inches to win it in regulation for us. In game two Toll rung the ball off [netminder Alex] Coutt's knee and post and it doesn't go in,” he said. “You work for your bounces in this game. They worked for their bounces; we didn't work for our bounces.”
