The powerhouse of senior B lacrosse is loaded for an explosive Presidents’ Cup three-peat.
The St. Albert Miners blasted a 24-1-1 path of destruction into nationals with a powder-keg offence averaging 13.4 goals and a defiant 5.3 against per game.
“Our plan to go there and take the third in a row – that's what we came into this year preparing for,” said Richard Lachlan, an offensive linchpin for the defending national champions. “We have a lot of confidence. It’s all about focusing on one game at a time and taking care of business.”
A three-peat would further enhance the legacy of the Miners among the best of the best in joining the 1976-78 Vernon (Okanagan) Tigers and 1986-88 Fergus (Ont.) Thistles as the only teams to celebrate three consecutive Presidents’ Cups.
“It would mean a lot for sure. Obviously to win one is hard and to win three would be incredibly hard,” said assistant captain Graedon Cornfield. “It would be unbelievable if we were able to pull that off, but we have a lot of work to do.
“Our first game is against Saskatchewan (Saskatoon Brewers) and that’s what we’re focused on right now.”
Nationals start Sunday in Nanaimo for the Miners, an eye-popping 79-3-2 overall after losing the 2015 provincial final.
“We definitely have a target on our backs because we’ve won the last two,” Cornfield said. “Everyone will want to beat us and dethrone us. Even playing in the province here everyone wants to beat us. Everyone is bringing their A game and we know that we have to play our best to win games, and nationals will be the same kind of deal.”
For the second straight nationals, the format is an eight-team round robin to produce the playoff pairings.
Last year at Iroquois Lacrosse Arena, located on Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, the Miners played nine games in eight days, including a pair one day, en route to an 8-1 mark as the first Alberta team to win back-to-back senior B nationals.
“It’s a grind on the body. We’re not 10 any more so it’s tough,” said Cornfield, 31, who expects this year’s nationals “is going to have a lot more parity” than in previous years.
“Every team is going to be pretty good. The hosts for sure. They signed a bunch of very high-end, high- calibre NLL (National Lacrosse League) players so they’ll be really good,” Cornfield said of the Nanaimo Timbermen (20-5) of the West Coast Lacrosse League. “It’s going to be pretty level across the board. It’s going to be different for us with everyone being a contender."
The Miners welcome the challenge with open arms.
“We’re the team to beat so we expect everybody’s best when we play against them and we wouldn’t rather have it any other way,” said Lachlan, noting Nanaimo has “loaded up with some guys that have played pro lacrosse, the same as the Ladner team out there too (that lost the best-of-three WCLL final to the Timbermen in Game 3), so they should be really good, and as always Ontario and some other teams from back east always bring some stacked squads. So we’re expecting it to be a really competitive tournament with eight teams that all have a chance to take it home.
“But if we stick to our systems and we play well as a team then we’ve got just as good of a shot as anybody.”
Rampaging results
The Miners march into the fourth nationals in five years and the sixth since 2010 after drilling the Edmonton Warriors (9-10-2) and Calgary Mountaineers (14-11) in three-game playoff sweeps in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League.The margin of victories were 45-9 against the Warriors and 37-12 against the Mountaineers after the Miners closed out the regular season with a 3-1-1 mark that included a 9-8 loss to the Mountaineers on June 23 in Calgary and the 12-12 stalemate with the Warriors on July 13 at Go Auto Arena in the last game before the playoffs.
“We had that tie and that loss and it was good to prepare us. We want to face adversity,” Cornfield said. “There is definitely some good teams in our league for sure. The Warriors are a good hard-working team and the same with the Mounties. We had to really work hard and grind away to win those games.”
The fifth consecutive RMLL provincial final and eighth in nine years for the Miners ended in Friday’s 11-5 decision in Calgary after kicking off the series with wins of 12-3 and 14-4 the previous weekend at Strathcona Olympiette Centre.
“Tough games at the end of the season like that will help us at nationals,” Cornfield said. “The last one was close the whole game. It could’ve gone either way.”
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the team’s championship picture.
The Mountaineers were missing two of their better players, Travis and Jordan Getz, for the first two games because of coaching commitments with the Alberta midget A national champions.
In Game 3, Matt Hiebert started in net for the Miners after Aaron Bold tended twice in both wins. The Mountaineers struck twice early in the match and the Miners quickly regained the lead as Darren Kinnear made it 3-2. A back-and-forth middle frame saw Keegan Bal knot it at five and Josh Sullivan set up Cornfield for the go-ahead 6-5 goal at the end of the second. In the last frame, the Miners eventually wore down netminder Kane Swartout with a ton of shots.
“They played a great game. Kudos to them,” Lachlan said. “They came out hard. Their backs were against the wall. If they lost they’re out.
“We kind of caught fire going into the third. Their goalie played really well early in the game, made a lot of big saves, and we kind of figured him out a little bit in the third period.”
Offensive dynamo
The playoff scoring stats haven’t been updated on the RMLL website since the first round but you can bet the farm Lachlan would be among the top snipers after the right-side terror whipped up 51 goals and 103 points in 16 games as the Harris Toth Award recipient as the RMLL scoring champion.Mike Triolo, a first-year Miner, was the runner-up with 50 goals and 99 points in 17 games.
Last year’s totals for Lachlan were a league-high 62 goals in 14 games as the second-place finisher in the scoring race with 90 points behind Bal’s 123 points in 16 games, including 49 goals.
Lachlan joined the Miners two years ago and was the league-leader in goals with 36 and fourth in points with 62 in 15 games, while Bal was the No. 1 scorer with 70 points, plus 26 goals in 13 games.
Lachlan, 27, also did massive damage at nationals last year (34 goals, 51 points in nine games) and 2016 (15 goals, 27 points in five games).
“I’m just taking advantage of opportunities that present themselves with our team being so dynamic,” said Lachlan, a Port Coquitlam product who played previously with the New Westminster Salmonbellies in the senior A Western Lacrosse Association.
“I’ve been lucky. It’s a team game and with guys on our right side like Keegan Bal, we played back in B.C. where we lived there together. We’ve had some really good chemistry and it’s the same as Mike Triolo this year. They carry the ball a lot and teams respect them and it’s my job to get open and take care of my scoring chances. When they’re carrying the ball so well I can kind of find my soft spots, my seams and put the ball away.
“It’s the same on our left side with guys like Graedon and Jordan Cornfield and Darren Kinnear. They’re such big threats and it allows me even when I'm scoring goals, the way I am, to continue to go and find some soft spots.”
Brotherhood
Lachlan was quick to embrace the Miners' mystique upon his arrival.“I noticed when I first came out this is the closest group of guys on a team that I’ve ever been a part of. As much as we do on the floor we do so much as a team off the floor, whether it’s a few team events on Friday night playing some poker or whatever it is we’re always doing stuff together,” said Lachlan, a coach for the junior B Tier I Fort Saskatchewan Rebels along with Miners teammate John Lintz. “Of course there is a lot of talent here, guys that have grown up in Edmonton and came through the system playing at high levels, players that drive up an hour and a half from Red Deer three times a week and others have come here to work from B.C. and Ontario. It’s a mix of a lot of guys that played whether it’s NLL or senior A lacrosse. It’s a high level here as well.
“It’s a recipe for success for sure.”
Cornfield credits the coaching staff of Vay Diep, Todd Lorenz, a Canadian Lacrosse Hall-of-Fame member, and Chris Stachniak for transforming the Miners into a team to fear.
“They’re really good coaches and have really good systems in place,” said Cornfield, a standout Miner since 2010. “Obviously we’ve had some guys move here and play on our team from Ontario and B.C. so that helps but another thing that we always harp on and preach is our practices and everyone buys in and works extremely hard. We’re trying to assimilate a game and having practices where you work that hard and pretend it’s a game, that’s going to help you improve because our defence is really good. So as an offensive guy, if we’re playing against a really good defence, which is our defence, in practice that will translate overall over into games. That’s another big thing for us.”
