Ice Miners Prepare for Season Opener, Release 25 Man Roster
September 8, 2014 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Keystone Ice Miners News Release
CONNELLSVILLE, PA - After a successful exhibition weekend, in which they picked up 9-2 and 9-1 wins over the Richmond Generals (USPHL), head coach Michael Gershon and the Keystone Ice Miners are primed for the start of the regular season. Despite the large margins of victory, Gershon says the games were far from perfect.
"We won by a pretty high score, but I think we need to work on staying in the game and playing a full sixty [minutes], regardless of who the opponent is or what the score is," said Gershon. The Ice Miners coaching staff cut the roster from 31 players to 25 following Saturday night's game.
"We had some really hard decisions to make and we let some really good players and some excellent kids go but we're happy with what our roster looks like right now," he said. The regular season begins this Saturday, September 13th with a home game against the Johnstown Tomahawks - a team with which the Ice Miners franchise already has an established rivalry, having eliminated the Tomahawks from the playoffs the last two seasons while in Port Huron. Now, with the teams located just an hour apart, Gershon says that the rivalry will surely heat up.
"Any time you're an hour away you're always going to have a rivalry just based on proximity," he said. "But knocking them out of the playoffs two years in a row, I know that they're gunning for us and we're looking forward to accepting the challenge."
After the home opener, the Ice Miners will head to Blaine, Minnesota for the annual NAHL showcase, September 17th through the 20th. "The biggest key to the showcase is that the teams that are fully prepared usually tend to do better just based on systems and spacing and everything," said Gershon. "For us, we need to make sure we're 100% committed and understanding what our roles are and putting out a good effort." The Ice Miners will take on out of division opponents Topeka, Austin, Aberdeen, and Corpus Christi at the Showcase.
"For us, nothing changes. We go back to what we're good at - and that's working hard. We want to just outwork teams and with our skill and with what our personnel is we should be competitive every night," said Gershon. "Everybody in this league is so good and things are so tight that a slip up of an effort here or there can make a big difference in how the season goes."
Tickets for the home opener are on sale and can be purchased by emailing Ruth Ann Shal at rshal@keystoneiceminershockey.com or stopping into the Ice Mine box office located at 5001 W Crawford Ave in Connellsville.
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