Recap: Minto Cup Day Four
Photo: Shelly Fey
By Adam Levi
Let’s relive the moment.
A spot in the 2024 Minto Cup Finals was on the line on Tuesday night.
It was going to be either going to the Port Coquitlam Saints making their first Minto Cup finals appearance in the club's history or the steady juggernaut that is the Orangeville Northmen making it back to where they believe they always belong.
With the Coquitlam Adanacs waiting in the wings to see who they were going to be facing in the best-of-three finals series, was it going to be the first all-BC Minto Cup Finals match since 2004, or was this going to be a rematch of the 2016, 2012, 2010, and 1993 battles that we’ve grown more accustomed to in recent years? It was unclear who it was going to be until very late into the contest.
In a game of this magnitude, not one player on either side was going to go down without a fight. It was a battle from start to finish, even as the impending result eventually started to become clearer.
The first time these two met, which was actually the very first game of this summer’s tournament, the Saints outlasted the Northmen 12-7. The Northmen took some time to get their feet underneath them, and once they did, they battled valiantly. Unfortunately for Ontario’s top Jr. A team, it was the Saints that pulled away in the end to claim victory. This was not the way things played out in this one.
In fact, as the game unfolded, it was the Northmen who were superior. There were two Northman players in particular that put together forever memorable performances. It was the Tre Deere and Liam Matthews show all night long, but when it mattered most, they shined even brighter.
Matthews assisted on the first Northmen goal of the night that made it 1-1. He then went on to score the next two goals for the team (both of which came in the first period). In large part due to Matthews’ effort to open this game, it was 3-3 Northmen after the first. Believe it or not, Deere, who we’ll talk about in a moment, didn’t even register a point in the first period, although he was a focal part of the Northmen’s offense during that stretch even if he didn’t score.
You could tell these two were ready for this moment, not only because they have been excellent this year and their preceding years in junior, as well, but because after having strong starts to the Minto Cup round robin, they were rested in the final round robin game to be as ready as possible for this moment. That decision clearly paid off.
In the second period, Liam Matthews started the scoring at the 17:53 mark. Just over 22 minutes into this critical contest, Matthews already had a hat trick. After two Saints goals, which came within a minute of each other, and a Joey Spallina response tally, we saw Deere put up his first goal - his first point - of the night. There was much more to come from him, and, by the way, Matthews assisted on the Deere goal. The score by Deere opened the floodgates. He scored 53 seconds later for his second of the night.
The Saints were resilient, though, and ended the period on a two-goal run to notch it at 8-8 heading into the last 20 minutes. The Saints had contributions all over the place on this night - they had six different goal scorers, and no one player scored more than twice - Josh Mills, Finn Halliday, and Austin Lamoureux all had two goals by the final whistle.
By the final frame, it was abundantly clear that everyone understood what was on the line. Tre Deere was ready to create a core Jr. A lacrosse memory. The Saints’ Halladay opened the period’s scoring in the first 30 seconds of the third to make it 9-8. After that, Tre Deere wasn’t going to let anybody else have the spotlight. He scored four goals in the period and fed Matthews for his lone goal in the frame. It was a five-point final period clinic the likes are usually only had by the best players on the floor. It was a run that propelled the Northmen to victory.
The scoresheet at the end of the game showed some pretty gaudy numbers for Deere and Matthews. Let’s start with Deere: seven goals and one assist for eight points. For Matthews: four goals and six assists for ten points. Oh, and that Joey Spallina kid, who only had the one goal tonight, well, he had seven assists. Spallina has now recorded 17 assists in only three Minto Cup games played - these are genuinely spectacular numbers we are talking about.
Seeing these kinds of numbers from these guys (again) - it was Game Seven of the OJLL Final when Deere and Spallina also put up mind-boggling numbers - is special. The question now is: Can Deere, Matthews, Spallina, and the rest of the Northmen deliver over the next two nights in that same fashion against the Adanacs. The goaltending on both sides will be supreme, but the Adanacs and Northmen’s offenses are lethal when clicking.
This Minto Cup final is going to be epic. After a day of rest, Game One starts at 7pm PST on Thursday night, with Game Two at 7pm PST on Friday. If a deciding Game Three is needed, that will be on Saturday at 7pm PST. It all comes down to these two (maybe three) games. The Minto Cup is within reach. Who’s going to take it?
