The Miners Red hockey team defended their state title Monday night at the Salt Lake Sports Complex, beating a familiar Brighton Navy squad 8-0.
The Miners set the tone right away by netting the first goal 54 seconds into the game. Vince Billanti got the goal, assisted by Nikolas Morgan and Thomas Jacobson. Three minutes later, Hunter Jacques scored again, unassisted. Five minutes more, Hunter Hutchinson finished the first period scoring, 3-0 Miners.
The Miners kept the offensive pressure in the Bengals zone for most of the first period, while Miners goalie Alex Harhi faced only one shot in the first period.
“We were able to bury a couple of our chances early in the game,” Head Coach Mike Adamek said. “That kind of put them behind the eight ball.”
In the second period, things came a bit unraveled as the Bengals were sent to the penalty box seven times, compared to the Miners’ three visits. Penalties for the rest of the game became the norm, with somebody seemingly in the box for the remainder of the game. At one point, there was a scrum in front the of the Miners’ bench, and it took the officials at least 10 minutes to sort though all of the infractions. One of the Miners players had his face mask ripped from his helmet.
The refs continued to send players from both squads to the boxes in the third period. At one point in the third period there were four Bengals in the penalty box. In the end, Brighton was assessed 18 penalties for 77 minutes. Five of those were game misconducts, one five minute for fighting, one unsportsmanlike conduct and three roughing penalties. The Miners were tagged for 10 penalties and 20 minutes.
“Our guys did a good job of not taking it to the next step and not getting into a fight or a misconduct situation. (Brighton) wanted to take it that route and our guys didn’t, and I’m very proud of them for not doing so.” said Adamek.
Miners netminder Alex Harhi only faced six shots total for the game, one in the first, three in the second and two in the final period. The Bengals keeper faced 31 and let eight get past him.
“I felt pretty confident most of the game,” Harhi said. “I mean, there was a couple breakaways, but I knew I could stop them.”
Adamek said there were many contributors to the win.
“I think you see our depth when we have six or seven different goal scorers, right?” he said. “It’s not one guy scoring six goals or one or two getting a goal here or there. We have a really deep team.”
Cooper Ford had two goals, and six other Miners scored.
“Everyone was going; everyone was trying their hardest,” Ford said. “The whole team played well. We really came together, this group.”
The Miners defeated Brighton two weeks ago in the double-elimination tournament and have faced their rival in three of the past four state title games, losing in 2022 and winning last year and Monday night.
Next up for the Miners Red is nationals March 24-28 in Irvine, California.
