Cinderella Story in the Making

Going into the NSJHL playoffs this year for the Glace Bay Jr. Miners is a Cinderella Story in the making.
With the team starting on short notice and assuming a 3 game deficit to start the season, who would have ever thought about playoffs?

These, among others were exactly the thoughts of Jordan Evasuk-MacDonald (GM / Dir. Hockey Operations) & Sonny MacDougall (Team President), but they forged ahead anyway.
Back in October of 2010, the NSJHL voted to allow these two, along with the help of others, to enter the league with a NEW franchise and be based out of the Glace Bay area.  The hopes of the team for the 2010 / 2011 season were quite simple; provide a team for the young men in our area to continue playing hockey at a competitive level.

There was never any thought given to making the playoffs this year, we were starting out into a season which had already begun, we were incurring the 3 losses of the previous team in the area, and we had to get our team together (players, staff, and supplies) within a 5 day window before playing our first (4th) regular season game.....playoffs never entered our minds.

Well, that was then and this is now, the Miners DID build a team, and a good one at that.  Here it is, only 4 1/2 months later, and the Glace Bay Jr. Miners are in the 2011 Playoffs going head to head with the Strait Pirates again in the Battle of Cape Breton, a team in which the Miners have had great games against this season.  All but 1 of their 6 battles have been extremely close and competitive games, with the Glace Bay squad taking 2 of them.

The Miners had come back on the ice after a long Christmas break in a bit of a rut, however, with the Cape Breton Major Midget Tradesmen being dealt a blow and ousted from the first round of their own playoffs, members of the Tradesmen have joined the Miners just in time.  

Thanks to Aaron Rice and the staff of the Tradesmen, these players were affiliated to the Miners....something not done in years past, and have helped to make an instant impact on the Miner team.  They have helped to rejuvenate the Miners club both on the ice and in the dressing room.  With the high calibre teaching these kids were getting from the Tradesmen, the new players are a perfect fit, all they needed was to be shown our systems, the playing level was already there.

When one of the Tradesmen were asked about the first game he played with the Miners his response was quite simple...
"It was great tonight, I'm going home to have a Gatorade, protein shake, and add Brett McCarron on Facebook"
Well that just about sums up how the Miners feel about the Tradesmen also, a great group of young men who have come together to play some hockey while having a fun time doing it.  Let’s hope they continue to play well and go deep into the playoffs.

We hope to see one and all get out to pack the Bayplex Arena and cheer on YOUR Glace Bay Jr. Miners in the playoffs.