The Orangeville Northmen of Ontario beat the Victoria Junior Shamrocks 10-8 in the opener of the best-of-five Minto Cup national Junior A lacrosse championship final Wednesday night at the Langley Events Centre.
Orangeville got off to a 5-1 lead before the Victoria outscored the Northmen 6-3 in the third period to pull close.
Austin Madronic and Patrick Dodds each had a pair of goals for the Shamrocks with single tallies coming from Jackson Boyd, Caleb Kueber, Ben Preston and Teioshontathe McComber.
The Northmen heavily outshot the Shamrocks 67-39 and got six power-play goals, with Dylan Watson factoring in all 10 goals with seven goals and three assists.
The second game is tonight at the LEC and third game Friday. If required, the fourth and fifth games would be Sunday and Monday.
The Ontario-champion Northmen and B.C. second-seed Shamrocks advanced out of a Minto Cup round-robin portion that included the B.C. champion Coquitlam Junior Shamrocks and Alberta-champion Okotoks Raiders.
The undefeated Northmen defeated the Junior Shamrocks 12-1 in the round robin.
The Junior Shamrocks are making their first Minto Cup appearance since 2008 and are looking for the Island’s first championship since Esquimalt Legion in 1988.
