The Rockyview Knights are proving to be quite the thorn in the side of the Okotoks Senior Raiders.
The Knights edged the Raiders 9-8 in Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL) Senior B action, May 18 at Okotoks Centennial Arena, for their second one-goal victory over Okotoks in a week.
“We beat ourselves with these guys it’s like they have our number for some reason and they’re in our own heads out there and it’s hard to get our heads around what’s going wrong,” said Raiders captain Josh Sartorelli. “Silly things that shouldn’t go wrong just go wrong against this team.”
Sartorelli said the Knights’ playoff upset over the Raiders in last year’s postseason could be part of the reason for Rockyview’s two triumphs over Okotoks in 2012.
“It could stem from the playoff run where they knocked us out quick and we could be reeling from it, but we’ve just got to get over that hurdle and get back on track,” he said.
Okotoks had an auspicious opening frame in which it scored on three straight shots from Sartorelli and two from Scott Cable to grab a 3-2 lead after the first period.
Undisciplined play got the better of the Raiders in the middle stanza and the powerplay propelled the guests from Crossfield to outscore the hosts 6-3 in the period to carry an 8-6 lead into the third.
“I didn’t like the second period at all,” said Raiders head coach Jared McNicol. “We took too many penalties and our transition sucked getting back on defence and we got caught on some really stupid changes.”
The Raiders coach said the lackluster second period effort decided the outcome.
“I think our five-on-five game was way better than theirs, but they had six goals on their powerplay so obviously we need to work on our penalty kill,” McNicol said.
Okotoks’ captain agreed with the assessment, adding discipline has been the Achilles’ heel for the Raiders in their two early season meetings with Rockyview.
“We’ve got to stay out of the box, I think they’ve had 12 powerplay goals the last two games and that’s absolutely killing us,” Sartorelli said. “That was the story, in the second period our fast break game wasn’t there, our penalty killing wasn’t as sharp as it usually is.”
Tyler Farmer’s game misconduct for arguing a penalty in the second period didn’t help Okotoks’ matters either. But without last year’s top scorer, Okotoks mounted a terrific third period comeback narrowing the gap to 9-8 on third period tallies from Randy Levick and Marshall Just, but were unable to find an equalizer in the final eight minutes.
“The guys stayed with it and didn’t get frustrated even though there were a couple calls against us. They kept pounding away on loose balls and I think our defence was fantastic,” McNicol said.
Levick and Cable led Okotoks with two goals each to go along with singles from Sartorelli, Just, Danny Farmer and Mike Tyrell.
The Raiders (2-2) will be looking to snap their five-game losing streak to the Knights when the RMLL teams tango on June 6 at the Okotoks Centennial Arena.
“They never get too high or low and I think that’s something we could work on,” Cable said of Rockyview. “We’ll be ready for that one. They’re definitely our top rival and we enjoy playing these guys, it’s kind of the battle of Calgary. It’s up to us now to rebound and give it back to them.”
In the meantime, the Raiders start a two-game road trip on May 26 when they travel to Calgary to face the Mountaineers.
For more information on the Senior Raiders go to www.raiderslax.com.
