The Coquitlam Adanacs and Brampton Excelsiors will play a fourth game in their best-of-five Minto Cup final.
The Excelsiors extended the national Junior A lacrosse championship by defeating the Adanacs 12-8 in Friday’s third game after Coquitlam won the first two games.
On what was supposed to be a day off for the two teams until Wednesday’s second game was cancelled when the referees refused to work the game because a suspension assessed to Brampton’s Jeff Teat had been overturned on appeal, the Excelsiors hit the floor at the Max Bell arena in Calgary running and gunning. They fired 22 shots at Adanacs keeper Christian Del Bianco and connected on four of them to take a 4-3 lead into the second frame.
After Chase Scanlan tied it less than two minutes after the break, Brampton fired six straight goals to widen their margin to 10-4.
A power play goal by the Excelsiors’ Tyler McKay made it 11-4 early in the third period. Coquitlam then scored the next four goals to give them a glimmer of hope. But 90 seconds after Dylan Foulds made it 11-8, Justin Sykes third goal of the game for Brampton swelled their lead to 12-8.
Colin Munro scored four times and added an assist to lead Coquitlam’s attack, which outshot the Excelsiors 54-46.
Game four is scheduled for Saturday night, 7 p.m. Mountain Time.
