The Miners Red hockey team took a narrow victory over Brighton Navy on Wednesday February 19th.
With just under two minutes remaining on the game clock at Park City Ice Rink, the Miners had a 3-1 lead over the determined Brighton.
The refs then blew a whistle, charging Miners Craig VanValkenburgh with a slashing penalty. Brighton coaches pulled their goalie for a sixth attacker with the face-off in the Miners’ end of the rink.
34 seconds later, the refs sent Miners senior Thomas Jacobson to the box for cross-checking. The Brighton team kept their net minder on the bench with a six-on-three advantage in the Miners’ defensive zone.
The refs dropped the puck, and in a chaotic scramble with no one getting real control of the puck, somehow the Brighton guys got a shot past Miners goalie Alex Harhi, with 1:09 left and the score 3-2 in favor of the Miners.
With the Brighton power play goal, VanValkenburgh was freed from the penalty box, and suddenly it was six-on-four hockey.
The next 69 seconds were chaos. The Miners Red team scrambled to gain control of the puck and keep it away from Brighton, the 2023 state champions.
When the clock finally stopped with zero time remaining, the defending 2024 champions exploded with jubilation.
A happy scrum descended on goalie Harhi: The Miners will compete in the championship game once more this time at the Salt Lake City Sports Complex on March 3rd.
As for Brighton, well, the Miners may face them again in the championship, as they did in 2023 when Brighton beat them for the state title.
Wednesday’s goal scorers for the Miners were Nikolas Morgan in the first period, William Bock in the second period and Hunter Jaques with the winning goal with 7:25 left in the game.
Most of the game was played inside the Brighton blue line. The Miners peppered the Brighton goalie with 64 shots on goal, while Harhi turned away 19.
After the game, head coach, Mike Adamek, said he was pleased with the win and the opportunity to be state champs again.
“Obviously a good win for us,” he said. “I think it was probably a little bit tight there at the end. Penalty kill got us into a little bit of trouble.”
The Miners were tagged with six penalties in the game, a couple of which the coaches called “retaliatory type calls.”
Both of the Brighton goals were scored when they were on the power play.
“When we play five-on-five hockey, I don’t think there’s a team in the state that can compete with us,” said Assistant Coach Tommy Gatta. “When we start getting in the box, and we start playing short, that’s when these teams are going to get momentum and start coming back. So if we can stay out of the box, we can play five-on-five hockey — we’re going to be able to compete with all these teams.”
Brighton was playing without two skaters and their head coach, Terry Kenney, all serving suspensions as a result of penalties issued in their recent game with East High School. The Brighton squad was assessed 12 penalties in the East game, and by state rule, the head coach is suspended for the following game.
Miners senior Tommy Jacobson liked the tight competition of the game.
“It’s not just like a blowout that we usually have. So being able to play a team that’s ready to compete against us and they’re putting everything they have into us — it’s really fun,” he said. “Both their goals were power play goals, so our goal right now in the state championships: just stay out of the (penalty) box.”
“They’re a really good team,” said Jackson Gready, a senior and four-year team member. “We battled like every second, every minute of that game. It was kind of like our game plan, just to cycle pucks, get it behind their D and just wear them down.”
With their next game in two weeks for the title, the Miners Red squad will have to wait and see who their opponent will be. The tournament is double elimination, which very well might mean that the Miners will face Brighton Navy again.
“They beat us two years ago, and I’m still not done with that, so yeah, I like seeing them again,” senior Jonsey Reese said.
Gatta added, “Alex Harhi, our goalie, made some really good key saves, especially down the stretch in that game,” Gatta said. “We had we had a bunch of guys that just stepped up when they needed to step up.”
For obvious reasons, Coach Adamek said he likes the championship game at Park City Ice Rink.
“We will be the first team in a long time to have a chance to win a state championship on home ice,” he said. “They don’t usually do it this way.”