The St. Albert Miners tunnel towards a three-peat one win at a time.
The Presidents’ Cup senior B champions are undefeated in 13 games this season with five remaining before the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League playoffs determine the Alberta rep at nationals.
“It’s going to be a good one,” said Darren Kinnear, an offence position player with the first Alberta team to repeat at nationals. “I hope we can make it to nationals again and if we do hopefully we win it.”
The last team to win three senior B nationals in a row was the 1986-88 Fergus (Ont.) Thistles.
Nationals are Aug. 26 to Sept. 2 in Nanaimo and the host Timbermen of the West Coast Senior Lacrosse Association have loaded up for a shot at dethroning the Miners.
“They’ve picked up a few guys because they’re trying to win it on their home turf this year and we’re going to try and take that from them,” Kinnear said.
In order to three-peat, Kinnear rattled off a to-do list.
“Stay healthy. We have to make sure we’re doing the things to keep our bodies in shape. It’s going to be another nine games in eight days tournament,” Kinnear said. “Not get down on each other. I’ve never seen us yelling at each other on the bench. That’s not something we do. If we face a little adversity we just kind of stay calm and clear our heads and get after it.
“And not get into the little bad habits of just selfishness and stuff like that.”
So far the Miners have few flaws.
“We keep the ball moving all the time, our transition is forcing the ball up and our goaltending has been sound all year,” Kinnear said. “The big thing is we’ve got such a tight-knit team. Everybody loves being on the floor with each other and hanging out after games. We really want to be together and help each other win.”
The team’s prolific scoring prowess is predator-like with Keegan Bal, Richard Lachlan and newcomer Mike Triolo (“The giant, a beast of an athlete,” Kinnear said of the six-foot-eight Triollo) feasting on defences.
Bal led all scorers at nationals in 2016 (12 goals, 36 points in five games) and 2017 (30 goals, 62 points in nine games)
Lachlan was also among the leaders at nationals last year (34 goals, 51 points in nine games) and 2016 (15 goals, 27 points in five games).
Last year in the RMLL, Bal piled up 49 goals and 123 points in 16 games and Lachlan racked up a whopping 62 goals and 90 points in 14 games.
Triolo joined the Miners after finishing third on the Victoria Shamrocks in points with 45 in the Western Lacrosse Association after receiving MVP honours in the Arena Lacrosse League with the Oshawa Outlaws with 30 goals and 70 points for second place in league scoring.
This year’s RMLL scoring stats haven’t been updated for a long time but the latest totals are 22 goals and 40 points in six games for Lachlan, 13 goals and 29 points in six games for Triolo and 11 goals and 29 points in four games for Bal.
“They can sling the ball. They’re so smart and they know exactly what needs to be done all the time,” Kinnear said of the talented trio.
Assistant coach Todd Lorenz, a Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee in 2008 in the player category, has the Miners scoring at a Gretzky-like pace.
“We’re just moving the ball well, getting it across the floor to both lefties and righties and you let our big guys shoot,” said Kinnear, another prime-time point producer on the Miners with 21 goals and 48 points in 15 games last year and so far this season has tallied seven goals and 22 points in six games.
“Everybody on our offence can score so it’s hard for these teams to key on us because if they lock off one side the other side is going to score on you,” Kinnear added. “It’s just fun to be a part of right now. Everyone is doing well.”
Another reason for the Miners going great guns is the looming presence on and off the floor of captain Jordan Cornfield.
“He’s the best captain I’ve ever had. He keeps you pretty calm out there and whenever he says something you listen to him. He’s just an awesome guy. I’ve learned so much from him,” Kinnear said.
The Miners have been kicking butts and taking names during an incredible 70-2-1 run after bowing out to the Rockyview Knights of Airdrie in the 2015 RMLL final, the team’s fifth in six years.
The latest victory was Sunday’s 20-3 laugher against the Calgary Raiders (1-11) at Go Auto Arena.
“We’ve tied that one game in 2016 (7-7 against Rockyview in the April 30 season opener at St. Albert) and then won out and then last year we had a couple of hiccups which I think were good for us. We were kind of sitting on a high horse there and it brought us down a level again just to know that we’ve got to bring it every game to be able to win so that little adversity helped us out last year,” Kinnear said of the team’s 32-2 record after the near-perfect 25-0-1 mark in 2016. “Obviously we don’t want to lose any games this year but we had a close one last week against the Mounties (10-9 in overtime on Triolo’s winner in Calgary) and we play them again this weekend so we just need to come ready to play and put forth our best effort and I’m confident we’ll win that one. We just have to move the ball and have everybody firing.”
The majority of the victories this season have been lopsided margins.
“Our coaches keep reiterating the fact we need to not get any bad habits in these kind of blowout games and just make sure that we're ready to play and we're doing the things that have made us successful the past two years in these tight games and to be able to pull out a win so it's definitely a little hard to go from a 20-3 game and then face a better team where they got some guys actually giving you pressure,” said Kinnear of the Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. tilt against the Mountaineers (6-5) at Stu Peppard Arena. ”It will be a good game. I’m excited for it.”
The 2017 nationals was the third in four years and the fifth since 2010 for the dominating Miners and the eighth win in nine games was the tightly-contest 7-6 final against the Six Nations Rivermen at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena, located on the outskirts of Hagersville on the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario.
The first team to repeat since the 2011-12 St. Regis Braves of the Three Nations Senior Lacrosse League successfully defending its Presidents’ Cup after the previous year’s 12-7 result against the Kahnawake Mohawks of the Quebec Senior League in the final to go 5-0 in the eight-team tournament in Leduc. It was also the first national championship for an Alberta team since the 2007 Sherwood Park Outlaws.
“It was just such an awesome feeling to win it in Leduc (as the host team) and then to go back and do it again at Six Nations,” said Kinnear, 28, a Red Deer product who has competed in the last three nationals with the Miners, including the 2014 bronze-medal winning team that finished 27-3 and all three losses were at nationals, and five overall in his senior B career.
“Repeating was really hard actually. First of all you're going into Ontario and that’s the most highly populated province for players so they’ve got such a talent pool to pick from and going into Six Nations and winning on their floor that was huge for us. A lot of their home fans really didn't want to see us win that and we did it.”
