The Miners Red and White hockey squads are getting their last-minute preparations in ahead of their Wednesday night showdown at the Park City Ice Arena. The puck will drop at 6:30 p.m. for the two Park City squads. The Red team is Park City’s premier high school team. The White team is of such quality that they are the sixth-ranked varsity team in the state. The Red team is ranked first in the state and has won four of the last five state titles. The White team and its players know the Red team and their tendencies well. They’ll be skating with a purpose Wednesday, as many of them are gunning for spots in the future with the Red team. The two teams will face off again Jan. 29 and potentially a third time in the playoffs. The Utah high school season typically runs through late February. “Special day for our program,” said Miners Red head coach Mike Adamek. “We have two of the top six varsity programs in the state. … It’s always exciting and fun to showcase that a little bit.”Adamek’s Miners Red squad is 11-0 and the Miners White 7-2-1. The Miners Red have an incredibly tough slate before the Christmas break, facing the Miners White, East and South counties. East and South counties rank second and fifth in the state, respectively. Adamek expects the White team to come out swinging Wednesday and for the game to be close. He said they have a stellar goalie but that they hope to wear the bunch down.“They have seven or eight players that could be on the Red varsity team if they were seniors,” added Adamek. “It’s going to be a highly-competitive game. … I expect us to dominate (possession) a little bit.”Red team star Jonsey Reese with a one-on-one opportunity with the Brighton Navy keeper in last year’s state title game. Credit: File photo by David Jackson/Park RecordThe Miners Red used last week — their off week — to rest up their players. A lot of the players are playing both high school and club puck, some returning from the high school football season. Adamek said he will take a little bit of rust over tired players. The White team played last Wednesday, falling to East at home 5-4. Both teams rotate in a lot of players, a strength of the Park City program. “You see it just by looking at the roster, our stats page, that we are an incredibly deep team,” said Adamek. “There’s obviously times and points in the game where I want to have specific guys on the ice, but I feel like from one through 21 on our roster, if I put anyone on the ice, we have an advantage.”The Red team will add star player Jonsey Reese back into the fold shortly, after Reese suffered a leg injury earlier in the year. Adamek noticed an uptick in energy in practices, welcoming back players from football. The Red team will continue to practice but have some fun with scrimmages and such through the Christmas break. “It’s always one of the things they look forward to because they get to play against all their friends,” said White team head coach Chuck Torrey. “We’re here to try to make it competitive. … They get to see what the quality of play is against the team that hopefully they’re all gonna be on at some point.”Torrey has been preparing his squad like Wednesday is any ol’ game. He brought up Corbin Richardson from the JV team to face his brother Connor on the Red team. The two will be one of two sets of brothers — also, Oli and Mason Lees — facing each other. Torrey believes some of the keys to the game will be continuing to spread the puck around and hope for some strikes from their top scorers. Jayden Jacobs, Wyatt Nellis and Brocton Umstead lead the team with 13, 12 and 10 points, respectively. “I hope we can make a little run at the state tournament,” said Torrey on their season. “Maybe we’ll end up playing the red team again in the state tournament. Would be awesome.”Both coaches implored fans to come out and support the program, especially due to the quality of hockey out on the rink this season. “This would be one that they’d want to go,” said Adamek. “It’s a showcase of Park City, the whole hockey community. … You have 40 of the top 200 kids in the state playing against each other — it’s intense. They want to beat each other. It’s a fun hockey atmosphere.”The post Miners hockey teams prepare for inner-program showdown appeared first on Park Record.