The Senior B Miners finished their regular season with a win against the Edmonton Outlaws at Northstar Hyundai Arena on Sunday afternoon, sending them into the playoffs in a positive frame of mind.
The Outlaws scored three goals in the first five minutes Sunday to take an early lead but the Miners rebounded to a 4-4 tie by the end of the second period. St. Albert took command early in the third period and maintained their lead to a 9-6 win.
Captain Nate Schmidt, currently the league points leader, put one on the board for the Miners Sunday afternoon and said the game was a good come-from-behind victory.
Head coach Vay Diep was also happy with the team’s performance against Edmonton. “Good win,” he said. “Had to battle the heat and finally got the things going that we worked on all week, so very happy.”
His assessment of the Miners’ regular season is: “More downs than ups, but I’ll tell you what, when we do play our full game, it’s very good to watch and it just proves that the system works.”
The system is what the head coach said would get them to a third shot at the President’s Cup national championship title. The two-time defending provincial senior B champions have captured the league title the last two seasons but the President’s Cup has eluded them. This year, the national tournament will be held Aug. 27 to Sept. 2 down the road in Spruce Grove where six teams from across Canada will compete for the title.
At the beginning of the season, Diep said the key to securing a spot at the national championship would be the players sticking to the system. So were they able to do it throughout the regular season?
“Inconsistently,” said Diep. “On the players’ part, and on our part, on the coaching staff as well. So, we’ve got a week to figure things out and just fine tune it, and I think I still believe that statement that if we play our game, we will be in Spruce Grove on August 26.”
The Miners will have to nail a third consecutive provincial championship win before moving on to the President’s Cup tournament and Schmidt says that they are looking towards that goal of being top team in Alberta.
“We’re always looking that far ahead,” said the captain. “I think it’s definitely a possibility. We’ve just got to come together, play as we can, as we are able to and can definitely bring another one home.”
Schmidt said the key to drilling through the post-season to a league title will be focused play. “Just hard work, focus. Just focus on (defence), focus on getting our goals, getting our chances.”
It will take the effort and contribution of every player to accomplish the Miners’ goals in the post-season.
“It’s going to take all 18 runners,” said Diep. “Whoever I dress as 18 runners, it’s going to take all of them to accomplish what we want to do.”
The Miners seem poised for another run at the provincial and national titles with solid scoring veterans like Schmidt and the Cornfield brothers along with some stellar rookie efforts.
One of those rookies, Josh Sullivan, was one of two players who surprised Diep most during the regular season. Sullivan was a draft pick from the junior Miners playing his first senior B season. The other player who surprised Diep was Tyler Douglas who spent the last two years playing in the U.S. “At the beginning of the year he was making a transition from field lacrosse to box and he has drastically improved.”
Diep said he is confident that the team can manage a third straight provincial victory, but that isn’t the final goal this season. “We’ve got to win it to get to nationals and an Alberta provincial championship is nice, but our ultimate goal is to win a national championship.”
