Mountaineers edge Miners in OT

August 25th, 2008 by Lauren Ward

If there were ever a time to try to force a pun about the Calgary Mountaineers and some seemingly insurmountable mountain, now would be the time—the morning after an improbable third period comeback and 7-6 sudden death overtime win over the Edmonton Miners.

Coming off a vicious 18-2 loss to the Orangeville Northmen, the Miners exploded out of the gate for three early first period goals, maintaining that 3-0 lead until two minutes into the second when Kiel Donahue put the Mounties on the board. Remo Montalbano and Ben Contenti widened the gap again for the Miners with one goal each before Tyler Melnyk struck for Calgary. The period ended with a 6-2 Miners lead after Joe Lehman put one in with six minutes remaining.

When the third period rolled around it was all Mountaineers, as Kane Swartout and the Calgary defense held the Miners scoreless while Donahue, Sean Pesowski, Steve Sucha and Tyler Farmer each put one in to even the score.

“I would say off the floor the turning point of the game was the second intermission,” said Calgary Captain Tyler Pridham. “We had a fired up pep talk from our coaches. On the floor though it was our fourth goal. That really started our machine! Offense and defense stepped up huge, we went all out.”

Sudden death overtime became a defensive battle as both teams were unable to find any holes until almost ten minutes in when Calgary’s Jordan Ferguson rifled a shot from out in front to end the game with a 7-6 win that just might send the Calgary Mountaineers to the Minto Cup semi-final.

“I waited for the block to get set so I could shoot around the screen. The goalie didn’t see it at all, you could tell,” said Ferguson. “He went to the wrong side, and I caught him off guard.”

“It was such a close game, and being able to get that one goal is just phenomenal.”

Tonight in Minto Cup action the Victoria Shamrocks will face the Orangeville Northmen, 7:30 PM MST at the Max Bell Arena. Both teams so far have one win and zero losses. The Miners will face the Shamrocks Tuesday night, while the Mountaineers will have a rest until Wednesday when they take on the Northmen.

Ward began covering lacrosse for The Lacrosse Journal in 2005 and became its editor-in-chief a year later. Email her at lauren.ward@nllinsider.com.

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