The best rivalry in Alberta Jr. A lacrosse is alive and well.
The first meeting of league finalists went the way of the defending champions as the Calgary Mountaineers edged the Okotoks Jr. Raiders 10-7, May 15 at Calgary’s Stu Peppard Arena.
“We were sloppy, made some really bad decisions and made a lot of unforced turnovers as a result,” said a disappointed Raiders coach Dave Pym. “We were undisciplined and it cost us at times with them putting the ball in the net on the powerplay. When you have a combination of one, two or three of those things then generally you’re going to end up on the wrong end of the score.”
The Raiders got off on the right foot when impressive rookie Travis Getz opened the scoring from his office right of the crease. Aaron Tackaberry doubled the lead with a snap shot from the right point at four-on-four.
Calgary shook off the early cobwebs to end the period with a 3-0 run to escape the period with a 3-2 lead.
Goals from Pat Henry and player-of-the-game Jordan Felker pushed the lead to 5-2 Calgary early in the middle frame.
Freshman Raider Dylan Kinnear ended the run of five unanswered goals from the hosts with his first Junior goal after using a head fake to deke Calgary’s Jordan Kancsal out of his socks. Tackaberry then added his second of the game when the seas parted for the lefty to run through the slot untouched and score easily.
Penalty troubles then took its toll on Okotoks. Connor Wilson and Cam Gardner’s powerplay markers sandwiched by a single from Raider Kevin Pym gave Calgary an 8-5 lead heading into the final stanza.
Two early goals from Ian McShane put the game further out of reach. The Raiders would answer with Getz’s second goal of the game and Cam Copland’s first to narrow the gap to 10-7, but that was all she wrote for the visitors.
Copland didn’t sugarcoat the Raiders’ lacklustre performance in Calgary.
“If they want to yip and yay about how good of a game they played, I think we played like (trash),” said Copland, who racked up 16 penalty minutes in the contest. “I don’t think we were amped up enough.”
Okotoks (1-1) has just 15 goals for in two games in the absence of key goal scorer Holden Cattoni who will return from Johns Hopkins University this week.
“I’m not worried about whether we’re going to score goals off the back-end it’s just the process,” Pym added. “It’s early in the season, if that’s happening at the end of the year going into the playoffs then it’s a little more of a concern.”
The Raiders boast a rookie-laden roster and are treating the start of the season as an evaluative period, knowing wins and losses aren’t as crucial in the Jr. A division where all four teams make the playoffs.
“It’s going through the motions and really treating these games as preseason,” Pym said. “The first five or six are going to be to evaluate the talent and the players and the roles we see them in terms of our systems.”
Okotoks heads north for a first time this year on May 25 for a first ever meeting with the Sherwood Park Titans. The Raiders then head to nearby St. Albert for a second shot at the Miners on May 26.
The Raiders return to the Pason Centennial Arena on June 1 when the Titans come to town.
For the full Raiders’ schedule go to rockymountainlax.com
Coaching change
The Okotoks Jr. Raiders promoted from within after head coach Daryl Haynes stepped away from his post to a role in the executive.
Second-year assistant coach Dave Pym takes over the head coaching duties.
“It’s always exciting to be put into that kind of position and have the trust of the owners and management that you’re capable of getting the job done,” Pym said. “It’s a deep honour and certainly a privilege to get to work with some of the up-and-coming players that hopefully will represent Alberta in another level.”
Pym, the head coach of the Calgary Roughnecks of the National Lacrosse League from 2010-2012, is the father of fourth-year Raider Kevin Pym.
Haynes, who joined the Raiders at the start of the 2012 season, resigned his post due to an overextension of family and work commitments.
The Raiders are in the process of looking to add another coach or two to Pym’s staff, which includes assistant coach Jesse Fehr.
