Junior Miners Head To Sackville For Game 3

The opening games saw two offensively gifted teams pot a total of 20 goals, and left the coach of this weekend's visiting team believing the game's little things that often go unnoticed will be the difference in the next two.

"We learned that we have to play better in our own end," said Kent Verbeski, coach of the Glace Bay Junior Miners, when asked for his assessment of games one and two.

"We have to be more responsible, take away the middle of the ice, have sticks in lanes and have inside body positioning on these guys."

Last Sunday in Glace Bay, Jordan Langlois helped the host Junior Miners salvage a split of their two home games when he fired five goals, including the winner in double overtime, to give the Junior Miners a 6-5 win.

The dramatic win followed Sackville's 5-4 triumph on Saturday in a game that saw them erase a 4-0 deficit.

Verbeski said Sackville has too much firepower up front to be given the amount of time and space they received in the offensive zone last weekend.

"Both teams have firepower so what is going to win this series is just taking care of business in our own end," he said.

"That's just keeping things simple like little chips off the boards, little chips in the neutral zone, soft dumps and just getting the puck out five feet from the blue line."

Glace Bay's compete level must also be complete in Sackville, he noted.

"I think we have to learn how to play a full 60 minutes. I feel we let them back into the game by sitting back. We are a team that needs to forecheck hard and pressure hard. We don't want to sit back. You sit back for the end of the period but we can't sit back for a whole period like we did for the first game."

Playing in your own end for long periods of time leads to penalties, breakdowns and goals, he said.

"We need to be first on the puck on the forecheck and aggressive and work the cycle. Our team is built for speed and forechecking and moving our feet so we have to do a little more of that."

The Junior Miners will be shorthanded when they leave for Sackville Sunday morning, after Drew Wilcox broke his wrist during last Saturday's game. He'll be out for the remainder of the season.

gmcneil@cbpost.com