After fading in the third period to the Ontario-champion Orangeville Northmen to open Minto Cup play Saturday, the Coquitlam Jr. Adanacs came out blazing and mauled the Calgary Mountaineers on Sunday.
The Jr. A's got out-scored 5-1 in the final frame and dropped a tournament-opening 9-5 decision to Orangeville at the four-team Canadian national Junior A box lacrosse championships in Whitby, Ont. The next day, Coquitlam stormed to a 7-0 first-period lead and sailed to a 10-goal triumph over the Alberta champs from Calgary.
The A's were set to battle the defending Minto-champion hosts, the equally 1-1 Whitby Warriors, on Tuesday (after The Tri-City News' deadline) in a mean-little game, while 2-0 Orangeville was slated to play the Mountaineers, who enter the game already having been eliminated from the playoff round.
Also Sunday, the Northmen edged Whitby 8-7 in overtime to secure first place in the round-robin an automatic berth in the best-of-three final. Coquitlam and Whitby will meet again today [Wednesday] in a do-or-die semifinal.
"They key for [Tuesday's game] is to come out of the game healthy," Jr. A's head coach Neil Dinsdale told The News on the phone from Whitby. "It really means nothing other than the winning team gets the choice of benches, which doesn't matter to us. It'll be a pretty vanilla-type game for both teams."
Dinsdale said he wasn't impressed with the travel schedule the Jr. A's were dealt entering the tournament. The squad arrived in Whitby at 10:30 p.m. on Friday, he said, and was pencilled in for an 8 a.m. practice Saturday followed by the Orangeville game later that night. Dinsdale said the Jr. A's had little choice but to nix the early-morning practice and rest up for the tilt with the Northmen.
"Not to make excuses, but the chips were definitely stacked against us," he said. "Orangeville played well and we ran out of gas in the third, which can happen when you get that kind of travel schedule. Oh well, it is what it is and we'll deal with it."
The Jr. A's and Northmen were knotted 4-4 entering the third before Orangeville took control down the stretch. Coquitlam game MVP Ben McIntosh rifled in three goals, with Robert Church and Tyler Garrison also tallying in a losing effort.
Against Calgary, McIntosh pumped in three goals and added five assists to rally Coquitlam. Wesley Berg also scored three times for the Jr. A's, who got two goals and a pair of assists from game MVP Church.
Matthew Dinsdale collected a goal and three helpers for the winners, with Coquitlam's other marksmen being Connor Buchanan, Vincent Ricci and Garrison.
The best-of-three final is set for Friday and Saturday and, if necessary, Sunday.
