Minto Cup Opens Saturday in Langley

The 2014 Minto Cup, Canada’s National Junior A Lacrosse Championship, starts this Saturday (August 16) at the Langley Events Centre. The best-of-7 West versus East series will feature some of the best junior A lacrosse players in the country.

Two of lacrosse’s most storied junior franchises will meet in this year’s final. The East will be represented by the Six Nations Arrows who defeated last year’s Minto Cup champion Whitby Warriors in the East final. For the West, it will be the Coquitlam Adanacs, who beat the Calgary Mountaineers in the West final.

“The Langley Events Centre is very excited to be the host venue for the 2014 Minto Cup,” said LEC Director of Business Development Jared Harman. “This championship brings with it a lot of history and will provide fans the opportunity to see the best junior A lacrosse players in Canada. Both Coquitlam and Six Nations are highly skilled and it should be an exciting tournament to watch.”

There’s some history between these two teams, as they have met once before in the Minto Cup Final, when Six Nations defeated Coquitlam in a seventh and deciding game for their first Minto Cup title in 1992.

The Arrows, from just outside Hamilton, Ontario have ran through their opponents in this year’s playoffs, winning 11 of 13 games, including a four game sweep of Whitby, outscoring the Warriors 44-22 in the East final.

Six Nations last appearance in the Minto Cup was in 2007, when they defeated Burnaby in the finals to capture their second ever title in franchise history.

This will be the seventh Minto Cup final appearance for The Coquitlam Adanacs. In 2010, the Adanacs defeated the Orangeville Northmen to win their first and only Minto Cup championship.

The Adanacs road to the final started with a three game sweep over the Victoria Shamrocks in the BCJALL semi-finals. The finals proved to be a much tougher task. Coquitlam met their BC rivals, the New Westminster Salmonbellies in a best-of-seven that went the distance. In the end, the Adanacs captured their sixth straight BC Junior A crown, to advance to the Western Final. In the final, Coquitlam beat the Calgary Mountaineers in four games to advance to the Minto Cup.

Game 1 of the Minto Cup is Saturday at 8PM at the LEC. Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.ca For more information on the Championships please visit http://www.langleyeventscentre.com/2014MintoCup