After two straight losses last weekend, the St. Albert Senior B Miners came back with a win at home Wednesday night against the Spruce Grove Slash.
The Miners have been trailing the Slash in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League standings and the team worked hard to earn its 9-8 victory. “We dug deep,” said head coach Vay Diep.
Diep said it was a good win, “especially from the weekend we had in Calgary with the two losses. So yeah, I’m pleased with the win.”
The Miners struggled offensively playing against the Mounties and the Knights in Calgary.
“They did not play well on the weekend,” said Diep.
He said that coming off the losses in Calgary, they needed the offence to show up for the match with the Slash – and it did.
“We just haven’t really been connecting on offence lately and tonight things just started gelling in the third and just went for us,” said the Miners Tyler Douglas.
Douglas had a good night against Spruce Grove scoring the game-winner with less than two minutes to go.
“Feels good,” he said. “Been a little slow lately so it’s nice to get on the board and get the monkey off the back.”
The Miners led by a goal coming out of the first period with the score at 2-1, and the rest of the game was a back and forth battle between the teams.
“We were kind of neck and neck throughout the game,” said Douglas.
After Josh Sullivan scored early in the second to put the Miners up 3-1, the Slash came roaring back. They scored five goals in the period to grab a 6-5 lead going into the third.
Throughout the night both teams paid the price for time spent in the box with at least a dozen penalties between them. Both St. Albert and Spruce Grove scored two goals on power plays.
The Slash’s Justin Kinnear had one of the best plays of the night when he netted an unassisted, shorthanded goal halfway through the third period.
The Miners showcased their offensive strength in the third period, putting consistent pressure on the Slash. That persistence paid off with four goals and ultimately the win for St. Albert.
The Miners don’t have many games left in the regular season, but the defending provincial champions will meet with rival Slash once more before playoffs begin.
“There’s actually a good chance we’re going to meet up with the Slash here in the first round so it’s kind of a good test for us now, we play them one more time before the season’s over so we’re going to be seeing them a lot,” said Douglas.
Coming off of Wednesday’s win against the Slash, Diep is confident about meeting them again July 11 in Spruce Grove. “They have a couple shooters and we have strategies to stop it.”
The Miners’ next home game goes at 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 15 against the Edmonton Outlaws.
