Recap: Minto Cup Day One

Photo: POCO Saints Lacrosse Club

By Adam Levi

You couldn’t have scripted a better start to the 2024 Minto Cup than what we witnessed on Saturday night. The opening results set the tone for what will end up being an incredibly memorable tournament. 

The Port Coquitlam Saints defeated the Orangeville Northmen 12-7 in the opening game of this year’s Minto Cup. This result was a shocking start to this year’s Jr. A Canadian championship. Coming into this tournament-opening match, the Northmen were one of the favourites to win the Minto Cup. Now, after a five-goal loss to the Saints, who are making their first-ever appearance in this national championship event, the Northmen are behind the eight-ball and will need to fight and claw their way back into championship contention.

From the opening face-off of the Saints versus Northmen matchup, you could tell that something special might happen inside Coquitlam’s Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex. 

The Northmen didn’t have their feet underneath them (like we’ve seen all summer) for the first ten minutes of the contest. Because of that, the Saints took advantage and snagged a 2-0 lead by the halfway mark of the first period. It wouldn’t be until the 10:01 mark of the first period that Tre Deere would score the Northmen’s first goal. 

Once Deere scored his team’s opener and the period continued, the Northmen began to pick up steam - Deere finished the first with two goals under his belt. American field lacrosse star turned box lacrosse sensation Joey Spallina didn’t score the first period, but he did assist on all three of his team’s goals.

The first period would end with a 3-2 scoreline in favour of the Northmen. It could have been a wider margin, but Saints’ goaltender Ashton Brown stopped 16 of the 19 shots on goal he faced in the frame. The Saints’ defense, led by Brayden Laity, was very physical throughout the game, and we saw some heavy hits early, but it wasn’t enough to stop the powerhouse Northmen offense.

Whatever was said in the Saints’ locker room between the first and second periods seemed to get Port Coquitlam back on track. Within the first two minutes of the second period, shining Saints’ newcomer Silas Richmond scored his first goal of the tournament to make it 3-3. Richmond was considered to be a potential game-changer for the Saints in the first-ever Minto Cup appearance, and that proved to be the case on Saturday night - Richmond finished the night with four points (two goals and two assists).

After Spallina scored his first goal of the Minto Cup, the Saints had a successful stretch that matched the Northmen’s three-goal run to end the third. The Saints’ Finn Halladay scored two of the three goals in that stretch to make it 6-4 and reclaim a two-goal lead for his team. Halladay finished the evening with a hat trick - he and Joey Spallina were the only players to post hat tricks on Day 1.

With less than five minutes to go in the second period, the Northmen still had only four goals on the night as a team. That was in large part thanks to Saints’ goaltender Ashton Brown, who brought his A-game for this massive matchup, and the menacing defensive in front of him. Outside a few stretches up to this point, the Saints forced the Northmen to not look like themselves all night long. Brown stopped 43 of 50 total shots on the night, including 12 of the Northmen’s 13 third-period shots on goal. He was the MVP of this game.

Two late second-period goals pushed the game back to level, now at 6-6, but this was clearly any team’s ball game heading into the final frame.

Even if it seemed like it would be a back-and-forth finish, it was anything but. The PoCo Saints shocked the box lacrosse world, outscoring the Northmen 6-1 in the final frame and capturing a massively significant 12-7 W. This was a complete team effort, and it’s one that undoubtedly put the rest of the Minto field on high alert. 

The Northmen will play their second game of the tournament tonight at 4pm PST against Raiders Lacrosse Club. The Saints will play their next game at 7pm PST against the hosting Coquitlam Adanacs.

In the second game of the night, the Adanacs welcomed the Raiders onto their home floor. It was an electric environment inside The Palace on Poirier for the entire match, and the Adanacs did not disappoint their home fans.

Raiders Lacrosse Club is the youngest team at this year’s Minto Cup, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell after the way they pretty much went toe-to-toe, possession-for-possession in the first period against the veteran, a championship-winning-caliber roster of the Adanacs. They were very disciplined and did not seem fazed by the moment. Wyatt Viste scored their first goal of the tournament (a goal that pushed the score to 2-1 Adanacs. Still, the Adanacs did look like they were ready to make a statement in their first game of this tournament. 

Jack Kask was very excellent in between the pipes in the first, allowing only that one goal in the first. It was a fairly signature period for Kask and the dominating Adanacs back end. The Raiders found a few answers for Kask and the defense in the second - they scored three goals in the opening five minutes of the second frame.

The floodgates opened for both teams offensively in the second frame. While the Raiders scored five goals in the period, the Adanacs matched them and scored five goals of their own. It should be noted that the second half of the second period had far fewer goals than the opening ten minutes. Even if the Raiders were trailing after the first and after the second, they kept this match close enough to keep the game interesting through the first 40 minutes - it was 9-7 heading into the third.

That final period was far less eventful than the period that preceded it. Neither team was able to get much of anything going, and only two goals were produced in those last 20 minutes (teams splitting the goals 1-1). American Ryan Colsey and Maple Ridge, BC native Cody Malawsky each had two goals and three assists on the night for the Adanacs. Wyatt Viste of the Raiders led the way in scoring goals for Alberta’s team, netting two on the night.

The 10-8 win was an important result for the Adanacs, as it put them in second place in the standings, only behind the Saints on goal differential. Even with the loss, there were many positives for the Raiders to take away. They challenged the Adanacs throughout the night and made this a very compelling contest.

With the Adanacs and Saints playing each other later today at 7pm PST, only one team will be undefeated by the night’s end. In the other contest (the first game of the day), whoever loses the 4pm PST fight between the Northmen and Raiders will remain the only winless team. 

Tonight’s games matter a lot. They will set us up for a third and final day of the round robin that will be incredibly consequential.