It wasn’t easy but the Raiders are moving on.
The Okotoks Junior A Raiders advanced to the Alberta Junior A Lacrosse finals with a three games to one series victory over the St. Albert Miners and will now await the winner of the Edmonton Eclipse v. Calgary Junior A Mounties semifinal.
The winner of that series will advance to the 2011 Minto Cup held at the Centennial Arena in Okotoks along with the host Raiders.
“The old adage ‘The hardest game to win is the third one’ certainly held true in this series,” Raiders coach Bruce Codd said of their close victory over the Miners.
The Raiders booked their tickets to the final with a 13-7 win on Sunday at Servus Place in St. Albert.
After trailing by one through the first 20 minutes, the Raiders slammed the door on St. Albert and allowed only two goals over the final 40 minutes.
Rookie Holden Cattoni had a remarkable eight points on the night (three goals, five assists) while Brett Baron also had a hat trick to pace the Raiders’ attack.
Despite this being his first playoff outing, Codd said that there is little that Cattoni could do to surprise him at this point – given his skill level.
“Holden’s a super talented kid,” he said. “Yesterday (Sunday) in a big game he really stepped up and elevated his play which, when you want to be one of those elite players, that’s the kind of stage you want to do it in.”
The Raiders struck twice on four-man advantages while holding the Miners to one goal on three chances.
After winning the first two games at home, the Raiders played Game 3 on Saturday night in St. Albert hoping for the sweep.
The Miners were not willing to oblige.
Okotoks struck four times in the opening frame but only scored three more times after that, including none in the third period, as St. Albert claimed a 10-7 victory.
The Miners spent a considerable amount of time on the man advantage and went five for 11 on the powerplay while the Raiders struck twice on five chances.
As the victorious Raiders await their finals opponent, the Eclipse and Mounties will play game four of their series on Friday night at 9 p.m. in Edmonton.
The Mounties currently lead the best-of-five series two games to one.
In anticipation of the league final, Codd said that it doesn’t matter who they face. Regardless of whom the opponent is; the Raiders will be ready.
“By no means do we have a preference. We know whatever team comes is going to be ready to go and wanting to knock us off,” Codd said.
“Our mentality all along has been we want to go in as the Alberta champs and I’m sure that anyone of those teams would want to have that same distinction going into the Minto Cup.”
The Raiders will host the Minto Cup from Aug. 19 to Aug. 28 at the Centennial Arena. For ticket information go to www.raiderslacrosse.com
