The Coquitlam Adanacs are Minto Cup champions.
The Adanacs defeated the Orangeville Northmen 6-5 in overtime on Monday night at the Langley Events Centre to capture Canada’s junior A national lacrosse championship.
The teams were playing the fifth and deciding game of the series with the sides alternating victories. Three of the five games were one-goal contests.
In Monday’s finale, the teams were tied at two after 40 minutes.
Coquitlam went ahead 5-4 with 6:44 to play but the Northmen forced OT on Matt Vangalen’s goal with 93 seconds to play.
In the 10-minute overtime period, Dereck Downs scored the lone goal.
Jake Taylor — the lone Langley player on the Adanacs — had an assist on the goal and finished the game with two helpers.
Adanacs goaltender Christian Del Bianco made 59 saves in the victory as his team was out-shot 64-44. He was also named most valuable player of the tournament after finishing with a 5-2 record, a 5.49 goals against average and an .891 save percentage.
“I don’t even know what the feeling is … I just don’t know what to say,” he said afterwards.
“Honestly, it was just pure excitement.”
Coquitlam captain Tyler Pace led the team with a pair of goals, while Dennon Armstrong had a goal and two helpers. Reid Bowering and Nicholas McNabb had a goal apiece.
The Northmen were led by Thomas Haggarth and Vangalen, who each scored twice, while Adam Charalambides had a goal and two assists. Joel Tinney finished with four assists.
The Adanacs had won game one 3-2 and game three 9-7 while Orangeville took game two 9-6 and game four 6-5.
The two teams advanced to the best-of-five series ahead of the Delta Islanders and the Calgary Mountaineers as the championships began with a four-team round-robin format.
