Minto Cup day two featured what many called two “nothing” games. However, as a fan in the stands was quick to point out, this is the Minto Cup; these players are fighting to be named the top junior lacrosse team in the country. There are no “nothing” games.
Game one featured a matchup between the Calgary Mountaineers and the Orangeville Northmen. Orangeville entered the game with a 2-0 record, already clinching a spot in the gold medal best of three series to begin on Friday, while Calgary brought a mirror 0-2 record and were still looking to become the first Alberta representative to win a Minto Cup game outside of all Alberta matchups. Given these numbers, it should come as no surprise that the Northmen jumped out to a 3-0 lead, scoring all three goals in under two minutes in the latter stages of the first.
By the end of the second period, Orangeville had stretched their lead to 10-0 while AJ Mason and Cody McMahon already had hat-tricks with Rob Hellyer sitting on two goals. The period finished with some rough play as brother Dustin and Niall Caravello were giving roughing minors to match Cameron McIntosh of Calgary who was given two for roughing, two for high sticking and a ten minute misconduct.
While the skirmishes were stopped in the third, the rough play wasn’t as three separate calls were made for checking from behind, two to Calgary’s Kyle Gray. These resulted in three powerplay goals in the period for the Hornheads, part of a five goal run in the period that stretched the lead to 15-0. The only thing left to determine was if there would be a goal scored on the Orangeville net. The answer: yes, with eight seconds to play in the game off the stick of Tyler Melnyk. Orangeville peppered the tandem of Jordan Kanscal and Tim Houghton with fifty-three shots, while Calgary only managed thirty-four.
Keep in mind Orangeville was without OLA player of the year Jeremy Noble as he was injured in Sunday’s game against Whitby. He will play Friday however. It appears Orangeville is firing on all cylinders and whether they play Coquitlam or Whitby, they’ll be ready.
Speaking of the Adanacs and the Warriors, they were in action in the prime time matchup. With both teams already in the semi-final on Wednesday night, Coquitlam started with backup Riley Camazzola while Whitby countered with Alexis Buque, although he was replaced after one period. Whitby came out firing from the opening whistle but Camazzola stood tall making four highlight reel saves as Whitby tried everything to score. It would be the Adanacs who would score first, thanks to Wesley Berg on the powerplay, part of a four goal run, three of which came on special teams. The first really was a tale of two halves as the Coquitlam run ended at 9:04, and Whitby’s first goal came at 10:32 thanks to Mark Cockerton, the first of three to end the period 4-3 for Coquitlam.
With the teams playing each other on back to back nights, the mindset was either to sit back and play possum, or to send a message before game two. Both sides appeared to take the latter approach as the first period was littered with penalties, and the second looked like it would be much of the same. Of the ten total penalties in the period, four were for roughing (two offsetting) and two more were fighting majors. The penalties slowed the pace of the game to a crawl, but as was seen all season long, Whitby thrives when the physical play picks up. This game was no exception as they responded with three separate three goal runs in the period with each new rally coming less than a minute after the start of the period, or an Adanac score. Whitby won the period 9-2 and led 12-6 heading into the third period.
It wasn’t three goal runs in the period, but two that Whitby would piece together, again, fairly quickly following Coquitlam goals. The physical play kept up and the officials called a few questionable penalties to try and regain control as the seconds ticked down. Chris Attwood finished the game on the powerplay with a nifty pick up of a loose ball before cutting in alone and burying the seventeenth Whitby goal of the night on the Warrriors’ sixty-seventh shot. The final score was 17-8 in favour of the host team.
Mark Cockerton of Whitby led all scorers with ten points (two goals, eight assists) while teammates Riley O’Connor had seven points (all assists) and Curtis Knight had five (four goals). The top scorers for Coquitlam were Robert Church (four points, all assists) and Jean-Luc Chetner, also four points (one goal).
Both teams will face off again for the right to play for gold on Wednesday night at 8pm. As they’ve done all tournament long, JVI Productions will have a pay-per-view webcast of the game. Visit www.webcast-sports.com to order and watch the game.
