‘Bellies befuddled by Warriors’ netminder
Alexis Buque dazzles in Game 3 of Minto Cup, as Whitby takes 2-1 series lead with 13-4 victory
A double major in economics and accounting during the school year, Alexis Buque had the New Westminster Salmonbellies wondering Saturday what the price tag on goals was.
Buque attends American International College, a school in Springfield, Mass., where he’s also part of the field lacrosse program. These days, he’s wrapping up his box lacrosse season minding the net for Whitby Warriors, and he was nothing short of dazzling against the Salmonbellies in a 13-4 win in Game 3 of the best-of-five Minto Cup national Junior A finale.
Through two periods, Whitby led 10-3, but the shots were only 37-34 in the Warriors’ favour.
Buque, who was pulled with just over three minutes to go and his team up 11-4, finished with 39 saves to help Whitby to a 2-1 series lead.
The Warriors can wrap up their second Minto in three years with a win Sunday night at Queen’s Park. Game 5, if necessary, would go Monday at the New Westminster facility.
The Salmonbellies, who got back in the series Friday with a 9-7 win after losing the opener 16-6 on Thursday, opened the scoring at 5:49 of the opening period, as Brendan Ranford, better known for his WHL exploits with the Kamloops Blazers, jumped on a loose ball during 4-on-4 play and raced down the floor before beating Buque to the glove side.
The Warriors quickly took control after that. When Graeme Hossack steamrolled New Westminster’s Nathan Stewart near centre floor, picked up the ball and went in on a breakaway and scored at 12:18 of the first to make it 3-1, it felt like it was going to be Whitby’s night.
Michael MacDonald led the winners with three goals and one assist, while Reilly O’Connor had two goals and two assists, Dan Lintner put up one goal and three helpers and Ryan Keenan counted four assists.
New Westminster got two goals from Josh Byrne.
The series, which had been relatively tame previously, started to show some ill will, as the teams combined for 231 minutes in penalties. There were four scraps, including a lengthy third-period bout between Dylan Long of New Westminster and Emerson Clark of Whitby that drew hearty cheers from the estimated crowd of 1,500.
The Minto starts off as a four-team round-robin tournament and Whitby, the Ontario champions, won their three games by a combined score of 41-16. New Westminster, the B.C. runners-beat the provincial champion Coquitlam Adanacs 11-7 in a Tuesday semifinal to advance to the series against Whitby.
Whitby beat Coquitlam in the Minto finals two years ago. Ontario teams have won six of the past seven titles.