Coquitlam Adanacs’ goalie Christian Del Bianco picked up right where he left off his MVP performance in his team’s BCJALL championship by leading the Adanacs to an 8-6 win over the Mimico Mountaineers in the opening game of the 2017 Minto Cup in Brampton.
Del Bianco stopped 50 of 56 shots fired his way. Half of those saves came in the second period, when he faced 27 shots but only let two get past him.
The Adanacs came out running and gunning against the Mountaineers. Tommy Scanlan and Keenan Koswin put the defending Minto Cup champions up 2-0 before the game was six minutes old.
After Andrew Kew’s power play goal cut the Adanacs’ lead in half, Coquitlam scored three in a row to head into the dressing room up 5-1.
Dennon Armstrong scored his second goal of the game just 34 seconds after the break to increase Coquitlam’s advantage to 6-1. It was 7-3 at the end of the second period.
Mimico’s comeback took on even greater urgency in the third period when they scored three straight goals to get within one of the Adanacs. But Angelo Pontellnin beat Mountaineers’ keeper Riley Hutchcraft with 1:07 left to play to seal Coquitlam’s win.
Armstrong added three assists to his two goals and John Hofseth also scored five points to lead Coquitlam’s attack.
The Adanacs will play the Alberta champion Okotoks Raiders in today’s (Friday) early game (11 a.m. PDT). The Raiders lost their first game, 9-7, to the Six Nations Arrows.
