Minto Cup Finals: Adanacs Push Northmen to the Brink

The Coquitam Adanacs are 60 minutes away from Minto Cup immortality following their 14-7 victory over the Orangeville Northmen on Thursday. Game two of the best of three Minto Finals will take place Friday night at 7 PM PST. 

The Cup will be in the building Friday (the cup has in fact been in the building all week but that’s one of my favourite phrases in sports). 

Of course, the Northmen will have much to say about the matter. Orangeville is facing an elimination game for the third time in less than two weeks. They beat the Mimico Mountaineers in game seven of the OJLL finals, and they beat the Port Coquitlam Saints in the semifinal play-in game. Now they face it again in the Minto Finals.

Jaxon Dillon continued his incredible tournament in Thursday, scoring 5 goals and an assist, while Noah Manning led all scorers with 8 points in the contest. Liam Matthews had 3 goals and 2 assists to lead the Northmen. Coquitlam goaltender Jack Kask took home game MVP and was stellar in the second half of the game. 

Coquitlam dominated the second half in general, out-scoring Orangeville 6-1 in the third period, and scoring seven of the last eight tallies in the game. 

For Orangeville, both Connor O’Toole and Lindyn Hill played in the goal. They now face a very difficult decision about who to start in game two. 

Let’s get into some of the other keys to game one, and look ahead to game two. 

Manning and Dillon Lead The Way

While much of the focus coming into the tournament has been on Cody Malawsky, Ryan Colsey, and the Coquitlam lefties, it’s the right-handed forwards who stole the show Thursday. 

Dillon is just a ridiculous shooter. He scored all 5 of his goals on Thursday from well outside the dotted line, often through a defender. Both Orangeville goaltenders seemed to have issues picking up his release, which is a somewhat funky three-quarter overhand shot. 

What’s impressive is his ability to pick the bottom left corner with that shot. To be able to pick that spot with that release requires nearly perfect accuracy. Anything not precisely in the corner will either miss wide or hit the goalkeeper’s leg pad. Dillon has managed to perfect it. 

Meanwhile, Manning was happy to keep dishing the rock to Dillon and friends, finishing with 6 assists. I wrote yesterday that I thought he was an x-factor for these Minto Finals.

That proved to be true in game one. Manning is competing in his second Minto Cup, and has also competed in the world field lacrosse championships with the Canadian U20 team in Ireland. He also played in a final four this year for the Denver Pioneers. In other words, he is battle tested. 

That experience helps in a tournament like this. He was outstanding Thursday. 

Clean Exits 

Something the Adanacs did very well was manage the ball between the lines, not letting the Orangeville forecheck cause problems. They did this through breaking out with multiple outlets. On every Orangeville shot, one player was stretching deep (Jack Kask likes to throw these as well), one player was short for Kask to dump to, and another player was a release valve in the middle of the floor. 

This is good coaching, and it was well executed. Coquitlam sacrificed some time on offence to manage the ball, but it was a good trade off. 

Orangeville’s forecheck helps them emotionally impact the game, and also twists the math in their favor. Extra possessions against tired defences are typically where they do their damage. 

 Even with the right tactics, Coquitlam still turned a few over due to bad stickwork. If they can continue to do the right things in this area of the game, they will have success. Orangeville will hope that is not the case. 

So, What Changes?

For Orangeville, they have the flexibility to bring in some fresh bodies. I would expect Coquitlam to run with a very similar lineup. 

The biggest storyline is certainly the decision Orangeville will make in the goal. Both O’Toole and Hill are capable and have both played a lot in this tournament. We will see who coach Rusty Kruger goes with. 

The second obvious one is how Orangeville can get more production out of the right side. Joey Spallina was held without a goal for the first time since June 19th, which was 26 games ago. That statistic would obviously suggest that a breakout game two is more likely than a repeat of game one. 

This thing is far from over, and the atmosphere inside the palace will border on the surreal on Friday night. If you can’t make it, we will have it for you on Trickshot. 

Will we have another game? 

Tune in to find out.