The Coquitlam Adanacs took Game 1 of the 2015 Minto Cup with a 9-7 victory over the Six Nations Arrows on Saturday.
Cole Shafer paced the A’s with three goals and two assists, while Christian Del Bianco did his part in goal, stopping 40 Six Nations shots on goal.
Chris Cloutier, Tyler Pace, Chase Mcintyre and Jean-Luc Chetner also had multi-point games for the B.C. Junior Lacrosse League champions.
Austin Staats, who led Six Nations in regular season scoring with a second-best Ontario junior A league 41 goals and 50 assists, opened the scoring for the Arrows.
Later in the first period, McIntyre put the Adanacs into the lead for good on a setup from Shafer and Chetner.
Coquitlam led by as much as 6-2 on Shafer’s hat-trick goal midway through the middle period.
Cloutier tallied the eventual game winner at 9:16 of the third period, putting the visitors up 8-6.
Game 2 in the best-of-seven national junior A lacrosse final is tonight. Games 3 and 4 take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. If necessary, Game 5 will be held on Thursday.
