Minto Cup Finals: Game One Recap
Photo: Shelly Fey
By Adam Levi
Now that’s how you open up a Minto Cup Finals.
On Thursday night, the Coquitlam Adanacs and Orangeville Northmen took to the Poirier Sport & Leisure Complex floor in Coquitlam, British Columbia, to figure out who would win Game One of the 2024 Minto Cup Finals. If you’re a fan of great lacrosse, you definitely didn’t want this game to end, but, as is always the case, we had a winner by the end of the night.
It took the offense a little bit of time to get going in the first period, but once they did, it was raining goals inside The Palace on Poirier. There were 22 combined shots on goal through the first ten minutes of the contest - none of them found the back of the net. Credit goes to the goaltenders, Connor O’Toole of the Northmen and Jack Kask of the Adanacs, for doing their job expertly to start this significant game.
It was a very different story in the second half of the first period. Seven goals were scored in the final 9:20 of the frame. Nathan Chalmers opened the scoring for this year’s Minto Cup final. Tre Deere, who had attempted a behind-the-back, between-the-legs shot in the earliest goings of last night’s game, netted the first goal of the finals for the Northmen shortly after Chalmers’ goal. Deere scored right on top of the crease from a beautifully accurate Liam Matthews feed.
Following a Matthews goal for the Northmen, Jaxson Dillon got on the board with a bouncer from outside - expect to read his name a lot. He would also score the last goal of the period to close out the opening 20 minutes with the Adanacs leading 4-3. Something to remember: Dillon had posted three goals and two assists in the first game between these two at this event.
The Adanacs started the second period with a goal (another one from the stick of Jaxson Dillon), giving him a hat trick on the night. This score prompted a change in net for the Northmen. It was now Lindyn Hill between the pipes instead of O’Toole - these two would change roles a couple of times in the second, but Hill would finish the game in the final frame. Matthews scored again for the Northmen quickly after the goalie swap to draw the Northmen back to within a one-deficit.
The Adanacs responded via Ryan Favaro’s back-to-back goals, the latter of which was a Sportscentre-worthy play where he spun off his defender (Dante Bowen] sprinted in front of him, slipped, and while he was falling down, got off a shot that found its way to the back of the net. It was the highlight reel goal of the night, and there were a few of those. The two goals tied Favaro’s personal best for a Minto Cup game and were the most he had scored in a Minto Cup game this summer.
Response goals later in the period again brought the scoreline closer. Within a six-minute span, the Adanacs’ lead went from 7-4 to 7-6. Dillon, who hadn’t scored since the 18:32 mark of the second, and potted his fourth goal of the night to extend the lead to 8-6. Hill did all he could in the second period, making several acrobatic stops, but the Coquitlam offense was too unrelenting.
Hill even started the third with another great stop, but at the end of this critical game, the Adanacs grabbed the Northmen by the horns and showed their victors what happens when you come to play in Coquitlam.
The Adanacs pulled away in the third, with the first four scores tallied by their side. Two of those goals were scored by American Ryan Colsey, who attends the University of Virginia. The Northmen didn’t score their first goal of the period until there were only eight minutes left in the game, and by that point, the result had already looked pretty clear.
It could have been a better period for the Northmen, who only mustered one goal in the final frame while also committing six total penalties. It was a less-than-thrilling ending to a fantastic game, but the energy was still surging throughout the arena. It seemed as though the roof was going to blow off the Poirier Sport & Leisure Complex a few times in the night. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.
The Adanacs ended up claiming a 14-7 victory. It was the lopsided final scoreline that I don’t think anyone saw coming. It definitely did not feel like a 14-7 game for the majority of the battle. Jaxson Dillon finished the night with five goals, and his teammate, Noah Manning, ended his night with a game-high eight points. Jack Kask was solid all night, but particularly towards the back half of the game. He stopped 37 of the 44 shots he faced and allowed only one goal over the final 28 minutes of the game - Tristan Lomas was in net for Kask for a few minutes at the end of the game and stopped all five shots he faced.
For the Northmen offense, Joey Spallina went scoreless for only the second time this summer, and Trey Deere only had one goal. Liam Matthews led the way in goals with a hat trick and total of five points. Only four Northmen players were able to find the back of the night last night, and almost half of that production came from Matthews. A repeat of those nuggets tomorrow night will almost surely spell the end of the line for the Northmen at the 2024 Minto Cup.
Game Two starts tomorrow at 7pm PST. The Adanacs will have a chance to win their first Minto Cup championship since 2018, and it will be the first time since 2010 that they will have won it on their home floor, if indeed they do get the job done. You won’t want to miss this game. It literally could be the final Jr. A lacrosse game of the year.
