The Coquitlam Adanacs are the 2016 Minto Cup champions.
The Adanacs earned the national junior A lacrosse title Monday night by edging the Orangeville Northmen 6-5 in overtime, in the deciding fifth game of their best-of-five series at the Langley Events Centre.
The tournament finale involving the Adanacs and Northmen was another low scoring affair, with just four goals in the first two periods combined.
The Adanacs drew first blood in the third period on a goal by Captain Tyler Pace. The Northmen followed suit and added two markers to take a 4-3 lead.
Coquitlam answered back with two goals of their own, but with less than a minute to go before the Adanacs were set to lift the championship trophy, Orangeville scored to send the teams into overtime.
Dereck Downs tallied the only goal of the 10-minute overtime.
Six minutes later the Adanacs were named the 2016 Minto Cup Champions.
The game almost did not go to overtime as the Northmen had their net pulled with seconds remaining in the third and Adanacs’ goalie Christian Del Bianco sailed a shot from his crease. His attempt just missed the gaping Northmen cage.
“It was tough to see it [Del Bianco’s long bomb] miss by inches. He is one of the best goalies I have ever been in front of,” Adanacs assistant coach Kyle Sorensen said. “But we overcame it. It just shows the mental toughness of our team.”
“I don’t even know what the feeling is, there is a lot of family and friends, I just don’t know what to say,” said a jubilant Christian Del Bianco. “I almost hugged Hoggarth by accident I was so excited. Honestly it was just pure excitement.”
Del Bianco was named the 2016 Minto Cup Tournament MVP.
This marked the first Minto Cup victory for the Adanacs since 2010.