In what has been a banner season, the Rockyview Silvertips are making their first appearance in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL) Jr. 'B' championship tournament in a decade despite losing the divisional finals last night against the Red Deer Rampage, 11-9.

The Silvertips took an early 5-3 lead in the first but the Rampage scored four unanswered goals in the second. The two teams squared off with four apiece in the third.

On Sunday, the Rampage won the series opener, 10-2, to set up the two-game sweep.

So far, the Silvertips, Rampage, Manitoba Blizzard are confirmed to be in the hunt for the Larry Bishop Memorial Cup in Red Deer. The winner of the north division will be known tonight. Last night, the St. Albert Crude scored a 14-12 overtime win against the Fort Saskatchewan Rebels to force a third and deciding game.

Because Red Deer is hosting, the central division gets two entries into the championships. Silvertips head coach Derrick Henry says they are ready to compete and are capable of going deep.

"Regardless of how we got in, we have just as good a shot as anybody," says Henry. 

"I think we'll match up well. I definitely don't think anyone will walk over us. I think we'll go deep and it will be a good experience for our guys."

During the regular season, the Silvertips beat both the Manitoba Blizzard and Rampage. They're looking forward to getting another crack at the Shamrock and the north division winner.

The Tips play the Rampage in their opening game of the round-robin and know what it will take to win. Number one is to prevent them from building momentum and going on scoring runs.

"If we stop those runs, we have a very good chance against them. We've beaten them before so we know they're beatable. They're very fast, they're big and physical. We just have to be prepared to match that because not a lot of teams in the league have that size."

Among those getting their first exposure to the tournament is Silvertips veteran Matthew Dyck, who played for the last time in Cochrane last night.

Dyck has been a star of the Silvertips offence for years and ages out at the end of this season. He says the team has come a long way over the years.

"We went from one of the lower end teams to playing in the RMLL championship this weekend," says Dyck. "We've taken several steps forward since my first year here. "

"I think the best part of being with the Silvertips has been watching this team develop and grow. We've progressively got better over the years. This season, we've matched records and set new records. It's been good to see."

Appearing in 17 regular-season games this season, he was number two in scoring with 74 points, including 39 goals. He missed the first round of the playoffs due to other commitments and had five points in two games against the Rampage in the divisional finals.

Rampage on a 12-Game Winning Streak

The Red Deer Rampage are red hot coming into the RMLL championship. After a lukewarm start, they are on a 12-game winning streak after only notching two wins in their first eight. The last team to beat them was the Silvertips on May 26.

Rampage head coach Trey Christensen says the Rampage know what's it like to go into the tournament as the top-seeded team. They did last year and had to settle for silver against the Calgary Shamrocks.

Now the shoes on the other foot. With a 19-1 season, all eyes will be on the Shamrocks.

"It's a tough spot for them to be in because at this point everybody will be gunning for them," says Christensen. "So the Shammies have to forget everybody's best game and everybody's points."

The key to beating the Shamrocks is to keep them off balance.

"The big thing is not letting them play their games, you just have to pick a good tempo and play your game."

Christensen says the Rampage started the season with many new players taking on different roles, then worked through several injuries before finding their winning form.

"These two games were actually the first time we have had our full line-up, so it kind of tells the tale of our season. But guys got healthy and guys in different roles got more comfortable and it just all came together."

He, too, believes the answer for his team is to play hard 60 minutes to grab gold.

"It will be interesting. We're still young but the big thing is tempo so when our guys are running and controlling the tempo then we stack up nicely against anybody but you need to play like that for the full 60 minutes. So if the guys can do that we'll stack up nice. If they get a little erratic it could be tough."