Edmonton Miners will be first team from Alberta to challenge for Minto Cup Final
Published
The Edmonton Miners (Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League) continue to make history at the 2022 Minto Cup, the national Jr. A lacrosse championship. After a 20-12 victory over the Toronto Beaches (Ontario Junior Lacrosse League) in Thursday’s semi-final, the Miners will face the Whitby Warriors for the championship.
It’s a best-of-three final series beginning Saturday evening at 7 p.m. at the CAA Centre in Brampton. Game 2 is on Sunday at 7 p.m. and if necessary, Game 3 will be Monday. It is the first time that a team from the RMLL will play for the Minto Cup.
The Miners started the tournament 0-2, losing to both Whitby and Toronto before eliminating the Victoria Shamrocks. Now they have the chance for a rematch against Whitby, who beat them 11-9 in the round robin.
It was a four-goal run in less than two minutes early in the second period that made the difference for the Miners, putting them up 8-3 at the time. Later in the period, a pair of power play goals helped pull the Miners even further ahead.
Toronto scored three in a row to end the period, but still trailed 13-9.
The Miners kept the heat on in the third period, outscoring Toronto 7-3. Anytime the Beaches thought they had stolen the momentum, the Miners had a quick reply.
Mathieu Gautier and Jack Royer led the Miners with nine points each – a pair of goals and seven assists each. Callin Harris scored four goals and two assists, Marcus Needham three goals and two assists and Luke Bowen three goals. Keegan Lutsch-Melenychuk made 48 saves.
It was an uncharacteristic for the Beaches’ goaltender Will Johnston, who was named as the goaltender of the tournament, and for the Beaches overall, who also featured the OJLL’s 2022 MVP in Willem Firth, who scored a hat trick and five assists in the game. Johnston was lifted twice in favour of Andrew Kidd. Johnston stopped 26 of 45 shots faced, and Kidd 11 of 12.
The Minto Cup Finals can be watched on TSN.ca and the OJLL YouTube channel.