Senior B Miners
Two road victories last weekend extended the winning streak of the senior B St. Albert Miners to 10 games in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League.
The Miners (10-1) disposed of the Rockyview Knights 9-1 in Airdrie and the Calgary Mountaineers 14-9.
The three-time defending President’s Cup national champions are 96-5-2 overall after losing the 2015 RMLL provincial final.
The Miners lit up the Knights (6-6) for nine goals – eight at even strength and Darren Kinnear’s shorthanded tally – before the home team ended Matt Hiebert’s shutout bid with 69 seconds to play.
Richard Lachlan’s six points included a pair of goals.
Randy Hanger, Graedon Cornfield and Kinnear finished with a pair each and Matt Kristiansen also scored.
Highlighting the win against the Mountaineers (7-5) was captain John Lintz’s penalty shot with 5:08 left in the first period, and the Miners shorthanded, to make it 6-2.
The Miners capitalized four times in the middle frame as Cornfield notched a pair for six goals in the contest and Derek Burak and Kinnear also connected with the man advantage. The period ended with the visitors in control at 14-7.
Lachlan’s team-high 11 points included eight assists, Cornfield recorded eight points overall, Kristiansen added five helpers for six points and Kinnear finished with two goals.
The Miners have five games remaining before the playoffs and the next match is July 5 against the Edmonton Warriors (4-8) at 8 p.m. at JRC Arena.
Meanwhile, the Miners have reacquired netminder Aaron Bold in a transaction that head coach Vay Diep called a rental deal. The Miners sent Brady Johnson, the backup to Hiebert, to the Warriors, who own Bold’s player rights. Bold returns to the Warriors after the 2019 season while Johnson’s permanent playing rights will remain with the Warriors.
Last year the Miners picked up Bold for nationals in another rental deal for a bunch of draft picks.
Bold, a two-time National Lacrosse League champion with the Saskatchewan Rush franchise, played for the Vancouver Warriors this season.
At nationals last year in Nanaimo, Bold was named the tournament MVP as the Miners joined the 1976-78 Vernon Tigers and 1986-88 Fergus (Ont.) Thistles as winners of three consecutive President's Cup championships, the longest streak in the tournament’s 55-year history.
Crude red hot
The St. Albert Crude continue to rack up the wins in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League.
The eighth in a row and 10th in 12 games for the junior B Tier I team was 16-9 against the Outlaws (2-13) Sunday in Sherwood Park.
The Crude (12-3) ranks second overall to the 2018 RMLL provincial champion Calgary Shamrocks (13-1) of the south division in the 15-team league.
In the north division, the Crude are one point ahead of the Fort Saskatchewan Rebels (11-3-1).
Kolby Nester’s four goals and six points led all scorers against the Outlaws.
Guerin Nollski, Brock McIntyre, Nathan Shellington and Joseph Royer potted a pair each and Tariq Jomha, Ryan Simard, Dustin Herman and Mathieu Gautier notched singles.
The goal producers on the power play were Royer with two, and Nollski and Herman with one each.
McIntyre also picked up three assists to raise his RMLL-leading point total to 90 and his 38 goals is second to Makus Fouillard’s 44 with the Rebels.
Shellington, Royer and Simard were recently acquired by the Crude from the Edmonton Warriors (4-11) before the RMLL trade deadline in a rental deal for three draft picks in 2020 and another in 2021.
All three will return to the Warriors for the 2020 season as the Crude are loading up for a shot at representing Alberta at the Founder’s Cup national championship at Winnipeg in August.
The Crude improved their home record at Akinsdale Arena to 5-2 in Saturday’s 13-7 decision against the Rockyview Silvertips (9-5) of Airdrie.
McIntyre’s four goals, included a power play and shorthanded tally, and seven points did the most damage.
The Crude were also led by the three-goal efforts from Shellington and Gautier, plus a pair by Nester and Jackson Ganton also found the endzone.
Nollski and Liam McKenna finished with three assists against the first-place central division team.
The Crude have a big game on tap July 2 against the Rebels at 7 p.m. in St. Albert
Junior A Miners
Starting this weekend, the St. Albert Miners have four games left before the junior A playoffs kick off in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse.
Friday the Miners host the Calgary Raiders (5-5), winners of the last two RMLL provincial championships, at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena before closing out the regular season against the Calgary Mountaineers (5-5) Saturday at 6 p.m. at Stu Peppard Arena and next weekend with two games at Go Auto Arena.
The Saskatchewan SWAT (7-4) leads the four-team division.
The last game for the Miners was 15-8 over the Raiders on June 16 in St. Albert to end a six-game losing streak.
Ethan Forgrave is tied for seventh in RMLL scoring with 32 points and is the team leader in goals with 14.
