The Edmonton Miners (Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League) are moving on to the Minto Cup semifinals after a 10-8 win over the Victoria Shamrocks (British Columbia Jr. A Lacrosse League) on Wednesday afternoon at the CAA Centre in Brampton, Ontario.
Both teams entered the game with 0-2 records in the round robin, each losing to the Toronto Beaches and Whitby Warriors.
That meant their tournament lives were on the line. Winner to the semifinals, loser to go home.
The first period ended tied at 3, and the second period tied at 7. No matter which team surged ahead, the other had an answer.
In the third, Edmonton got on the board first, with Davis Dame scoring his fourth goal of the game, tiptoeing the crease and going high on Shamrocks goaltender Adam Bland. Victoria’s Noah Manning tied it 8-8 with his second goal of the game, but that was the end of the pattern.
Jake Bowen scored the winning goal on a power play for the Miners with 13:52 left to play, accepting a pass from Mathieu Gautier behind the net and firing it into the Shamrocks’ net.
Bennett Smith added an insurance marker on a fast break with 1:18 left to play.
Keegan Lutsch-Melenychuk made 41 saves for Edmonton, while Bland made 58 for Victoria.
It was just the RMLL’s fourth ever round-robin win against a team from outside their own league.
The Miners will meet the loser of tonight’s Toronto vs Whitby game in the semifinals on Thursday night at 8 p.m.
