Coquitlam Adanacs look to end Ontario drought
General manager Scott Wortley swears the Coquitlam Adanacs have finally started to act like themselves at the Minto Cup.
The Adanacs open the best-offive national Junior A lacrosse final against the Ontario champion Six Nations Arrows in Brampton, Ont., on Tuesday (5 p.m.). Coquitlam beat the Ontario runner-up Mimico Moutaineers 10-4 in the onegame semifinal of the four-team tournament there Sunday night.
Game 2 of the final goes Wednesday, while Game 3 is Thursday and Games 4 and 5, if necessary, would be played Saturday and Sunday.
The Adanacs are the reigning Canadian champions, having beaten the Orangeville Northmen 6-5 in overtime in the fifth and deciding game of the finale last year at Langley Events Centre. A B.C. team hasn’t won a Minto on Ontario soil since 1979, though, and Six Nations walloped Coquitlam 9-2 in pool play on Saturday in Brampton.
“I think it is easy to forget that game, because even though we went into it with a 2-0 record at this tournament we hadn’t played like we are capable of playing,” Wortley insisted Monday morning, pointing to an 8-6 win over Mimico and an 11-10 triumph over the Alberta champion Okotoks Raiders in the round robin.
“Last night was a bit of a reset for us. It was the first time we actually played our game.
“It can be pretty devastating to lose. We haven’t lost many games the past few years. But losing the way we did, to me, was fine. Losing by one or two, you could kid yourself. To lose like that, you realize you have to correct things. Even though there were quite a few things to correct, I felt we made those corrections against Mimico.”
The Adanacs are in their ninth consecutive Minto. They went into last year’s event at the LEC as tournament hosts after falling to the Delta Islanders in the provincial final.
Six Nations won the national title both in 2014 and 2015. They went 18-2 in the regular season and then 8-0 in the Ontario playoffs this season. They advanced directly to the best-of-five final this time around thanks to a 3-0 showing in the round robin, outscoring their opponents 26-12 in the process.
This Minto final series features two of the best young goalies to come along in recent memory. Coquitlam netminder Christian Del Bianco, 20, was the most valuable player of last year’s Minto, thanks in large part to his 59 saves in the championship game.
Del Bianco, who was one of the youngest players in the National Lacrosse League last winter when he suited up for the Calgary Roughnecks, made 41 saves against Mimico on Sunday.
Six Nations backstop Doug Jamieson, 20, could have won the MVP in 2015, according to Coquitlam coach Pat Coyle. It instead went to Six Nations captain Brendan Bomberry.
Ontario teams had won five straight Mintos going into last year and 20 of the past 28.