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This past week was the last full week of lacrosse for the Jr. A Raiders. Another three games have come and gone, tough contests against other Jr. A teams that brought us to the end of our season.

With only one game left this coming Wednesday, it is turning into playoff time for the Raiders. Playoffs brings a different kind of feeling to a lacrosse game and it is beginning to enter the back of everyone’s mind. Teams in our league have been hot with the trades in the past couple weeks in hopes their team will be playing for the Minto Cup in Calgary in a couple weeks; playoffs make everything that much more interesting.

After a tough season like the one we have had this year, the playoffs present themselves as a new season. Because there are only four teams in Alberta Jr. A lacrosse, everyone makes the playoffs. For our first round, we drew the Eclipse. But before we could tackle our first round playoff against them, we had one more regular season with them first, along with the Jr. Mounties and Miners. It was another lacrosse filled week, ending with another three losses. The week included a somewhat of a revenge win for the Jr. Mounties, a “same-story” type of game against the Miners, and a tiring game against the Eclipse that had us playing with only 13 runners.

The Jr. Mounties game was almost a mirror image of our second meeting of the season. It didn’t take long to see that they came to our place ready to play, and this one went a lot different than They came down to our place ready to play. This game went different then the last one, where we beat them in their barn. The first period started out well for us, ending 1-0 in their favor. Our defense was playing well, our offense was getting looks, and our transition game was running well. Like many other games this year, we decided to choose a period where our team falls asleep, digging ourself into a huge hole before waking up and trying to fight our way out. The second period was the choice that night, with the Mounties outscoring us 6-2 to go up big. We woke up in the third and made a comeback, but the game ended with the Mounties taking a 10-7 win after scoring a late open-goal.

Next were the Miners, who have given us three tough games this year. I have played in two of the three and both have been the same type of game, and this one would be no different. This game had the Miners potting goals early and often as they went up 4-1 after one. The second period was where we began to buckle down and make a game out of it, but couldn’t pull closer after trading goals to make it 5-2. In the third, we came out hard and scored two quick goals to pull within one, but we could not keep the other team out of the back of our net. The Miners defense buckled down and they ended up tallying an insurance goal and an empty netter. The two previous games had the Miners going up big and us coming back but falling short in the end. There wasn’t any time, however, to dwell on the loss, as we had the Eclipse up next.

The Eclipse was a tough game, which saw only 13 of our runners and two goalies make the trek up to Edmonton. With the loss against the Miners, we cemented a first round date against the Eclipse, but we had to finish our regular season series with them first. The game was rough and exhausting but it served as somewhat of a preview to our playoff game against them. The Eclipse made two big trades bringing in a big lefty from the Delta Islanders as well as a goalie from the Mississauga Tomahawks to bolster their roster for their run at the Minto Cup. The game had the Eclipse go up 4-2 at the end of two before blowing it open for a 7-2 win.

This week brings our last regular season game against the Sr. Mounties. We are looking to go into the playoffs on a high note.

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