Junior Miners A Cinderella Story

The Junior Miners boast the best record in the league with a 17-4-3-1 mark. Last season, they finished in third place and posted their first winning record at 16-15-1-1. In their first season in 2010-11, they had a record of 10-20-2-2 and finished in fourth place in the Sid Rowe Division.

General manager Jordan Evasuk-MacDonald, who co-owns the team with Sonny MacDougall, both had a plan to have a contending team three or four years down the road. The idea was to build toward the 2014 Don Johnson Cup, the Atlantic junior ‘B’ championship. Glace Bay put in a bid to host the event, but the Strait Pirates were awarded the tournament.

Nevertheless, the Glace Bay squad continues to prepare its roster to play against their cross-island rivals at the 2014 event, while having a winning season this year. Graduates of the Cape Breton Tradesmen major midget team and the Cape Breton High School Hockey League have contributed to strengthening the roster.

“The original plan was three to four years and obviously, we always want to be competitive,” said Evasuk-MacDonald. “This year, once we added (goaltender Jacob) McKendry, we figured we’d be in the top half of the league, but first place overall has been icing on the cake.

“We’re looking for home-ice advantage in the playoffs and so far, so good. Everything seems to be working great.”

The Junior Miners, unlike other hockey teams, don’t charge their players to play. Instead, they rely on corporate sponsors and fundraising to pay the bills.

The team holds a golf tournament each summer, and this year will be their third annual event. They host hockey schools, have a 6-49 pool and have sold advertising with a team calendar.

“We may only have three or four players that are not going to school who may be working full time and the rest are going to school full time,” said Evasuk-MacDonald. “It’s hard to balance hockey, work and school, but we just have a pretty great handle on it.”

Glace Bay was recognized as the top executive in the NSJHL in 2011-12. Evasuk-MacDonald said it was good vote of confidence from the league to get the award.

“I’m sure the league was a little hesitant at first when we put in an application for a franchise,” he said. “I think it’s a reflection of the hard work of our executive, the volunteers and our staff, just to show that in a short period of time, less two years, we managed to improve each year.”

On Saturday, the Junior Miners play host to the Pirates in an all-Cape Breton showdown at the Bayplex. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.

Glace Bay is looking to avenge a 1-0 loss to the Pirates on Jan. 11 at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre. The Junior Miners are coming off a 6-3 win over the Antigonish Farmers’ Mutual Junior Bulldogs on Jan. 12 at home.

“(The Pirates) played us hard up in their own barn in Port Hawkesbury at the Civic Centre,” said Glace Bay head coach Kent Verbeski. “It’s playoff-like intensity and atmosphere. Both teams bring a lot of hard work and intensity and our team has to realize being one of the top teams in the league, we have a bull’s-eye on our back and other teams are gunning for us.

“We didn’t bring our intensity like we had been the last few games before that, so we were stale and a little stagnant. Against Antigonish, we played better and brought a bit of intensity. Against Port Hawkesbury on Saturday, we’re going to have to do the same.”

sports@cbpost.com

On Twitter: @cbpost_sports