The St. Albert Miners are scratching the surface while drilling their way towards a national championship.
The St. Albert Miners are scratching the surface while drilling their way towards a national championship.
Last weekend the 2014 Presidents' Cup bronze medallists played to their potential in sweeping the Mountaineers and Raiders in Calgary while raising their record to 6-1 in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League.
“We had a very good discussion at practice prior to the trip. I made a challenge to the team. They accepted my challenge and the result was the players bought in,” said head coach Vay Diep.
The senior B co-leaders are undefeated in four matches after falling 9-8 to the Rockyview Knights (6-1) in Airdrie in game three of the schedule.
The Knights tied it at eight while shorthanded with 7:19 to play and scored the winner on the power play with 3:27 remaining.
It was 3-2 Miners after the first period and 7-7 after 40 minutes.
The teams combined for nine goals with the man advantage.
“That was not our best performance,” Diep said. “The games prior to the past Calgary trip were smoke and mirrors. We were winning games early with talent alone. The loss in Airdrie just confirmed my assessment of where we were at. It's unfortunate that it took a loss to have the players realize that we're a better team than what the standings showed.”
The Miners can right a wrong tonight when they host the Knights at 8 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
“Yes, it is a big game for us. I wouldn't say the team is pumped but more angry about the loss,” Diep said of the team's first defeat after 24 consecutive RMLL victories, dating back to last year's undefeated campaign.
“Players will always be pumped to play the game. Lacrosse players, after a disappointing effort, will always look for another chance to redeem themselves, to prove to their teammates that a poor performance will not happen again. It's also a chance to remind the Knights who the best team in the league is.”
Last year the Miners dug deep to finish 27-3 overall, including a 5-3 showing at their first nationals since 2011 and the third since the team relocated from Edmonton to St. Albert. They rattled off 26 consecutive wins before losing three straight at nationals – two were against the eventual champion Onondaga Redhawks, 7-6 in the round robin to snap the streak and 10-8 in semifinals – before beating the Kahnawake Mohawks 7-6 for bronze.
When asked if there is pressure to perform after last year's successful run as provincial champions and national bronze medallists, Diep replied: “What is pressure? The phrase we use is goal. As stated in previous years, this organization has one goal: Make nationals, win nationals. These young men understand, accept and are willing to work hard to have that opportunity for a national championship.”
Despite a turnover of talent on the roster the Miners are still headed in the right direction.
“The changes that were made were due to players taking a season off for work commitments,” Diep said. “The crop of draft picks and free agents have quickly adjusted and are contributing on a pace that exceeded my expectations.”
Top gun Nate Schmidt, the captain and team's leading point producer in 2012 (RMLL's top scorer) and 2013 who was a first-team all-star forward as the second-leading scorer at nationals with 34 points on the strength of 15 goals (four power play and four shorthanded), and teammate Josh Sullivan joined the senior A Coquitlam Adanacs of the Western Lacrosse Association.
Schmidt's older brother and scoring threat, Chris, is not playing this year.
Matt Hiebert has started the bulk of games in net with Dave Marrese, a fan favourite and second-team all-star at nationals, still part of the team.
Among the newcomers are Brett Reynar (junior A Miners and third overall north draft pick in 2015), Matt Andruchow (St. Albert product arrived from the junior A provincial champion Calgary Mountaineers), Pearce Just (captain of the 2014 junior B Tier I Red Deer Rampage) and Derek Burak (junior B Tier I St. Albert Crude).
The dangerous Cornfield brothers, Jordan (second-team all-star on defence at nationals) and Graedon (50 goals and 86 points in 15 games as the RMLL's most prolific scorer last year who recorded 12 goals and 20 points at nationals) are spearheading the attack with reckless abandon.
Jordan, the new team captain, compiled three goals and four assists in wins of 10-5 against the Mountaineers (5-2) and 11-7 against the Raiders (0-6) last weekend with Graedon unavailable for the trip.
Darren Kinnear, Sean Reid and Nick Petz have also made significant contributions offensively.
“At the moment we're winning games with our veterans leading and the new guys are adjusting quickly to our systems,” Diep said. “Nothing has changed from last season. Our goal every year is to make nationals.”
