A pair of third-period goals by Dennon Armstrong and Ethan Ticehurst snuffed a furious comeback by the Brampton Excelsiors and propelled the Coquitlam Adanacs to a 8-6 victory in the second game of their best-of-five Minto Cup final, Thursday in Calgary. The Adanacs need just one more win to clinch their third national Junior A lacrosse championship.
Coquitlam had a 6-1 just past the game’s midway point when the Excelsiors went on a four-goal run to pull a goal back of the Adanacs halfway through the third period. Clarke Patterson, Jake Boudreau and Jeff Teat — with his second and third goals of the game — got Brampton close.
But just 38 seconds after Teat’s hat trick goal that he scored while his team was shorthanded, Armstrong connected on the power play to give Coquitlam some breathing room back. Ticehurst then scored into the empty net with a little less than two minutes left to play in regulation time to put the Adanacs up by three before Boudreau netted one more for the Excelsiors with goalie Steven Orleman still on the bench for an extra attacker.
Coquitlam keeper Christian Del Bianco, who was named the team’s most valuable player in the Adanacs’ 11-9 win in the series opener on Tuesday, had another big night as he faced 51 shots, including 20 in the second period. HIs teammates fired 36 shots at Orleman.
William Clayton had three goals to lead Coquitlam’s scorers while Armstrong had a pair of goals along with three assists.
The game almost didn’t happen after it was initially cancelled Wednesday night as the referees refused to leave their dressing room because of a dispute about suspensions handed out to Teat and Brampton’s head coach, Dan Teat. Both were assessed match penalties for abuse of an official late in Tuesday’s opening game. The penalties carry mandatory three-game suspensions but an appeal by the Excelsiors that the rule for those suspensions hadn’t been applied properly and the subsequent decision to allow Jeff Teat to play sparked the referees’ protest. Dan Teat’s suspension, however, was upheld.
All-day negotiations between tournament organizers, the Canadian Lacrosse Association and the referee-in-chief finally resulted in an agreement at 6 p.m. Mountain Time and the cancelled game was rescheduled to start two hours later. As part of the agreement, two new local referees were brought in to officiate the game.
Minto Cup organizers, the CLA and the referee in chief are scheduled to release a joint statement about the controversy on Friday. An earlier statement posted to Twitter by the Brampton Excelsiors was deleted.
Game three is scheduled for Friday night at 7 p.m. Mountain Time. If a fourth or fifth game are necessary they’ll be played Saturday and Sunday.
