Minto Cup Champions

For some, the third time is a charm but for the Six Nations Arrows Express, their lucky number is four. It took them four straight Minto Cup appearances to win their second ever Minto Cup championship and they did it in convincing fashion by beating the Burnaby Lakers 19-8.

After losing to the two teams from British Columbia in the round robin (10-7 to New Westminster and 10-4 to Burnaby), the Arrows downed the host team 6-5 in the semi-final game Thursday night to earn a championship berth against the perfect Lakers team (in their twelfth straight tournament appearance). After losing to Peterborough in the final game last year, Six Nations was hungry for the cup as Craig Point, the eventual game most valuable player, opened the scoring at 2:48 of the first period. After Alex Gajic tied the game at 1-1 just over a minute later, Six Nations scored seven straight goals to end the first period leading 8-1. Craig Point, drafted third overall in the 2007 National Lacrosse League’s entry draft earlier in the day, scored a hat trick in the first frame while team mates Cody Jamieson and Shawn Evans each netted two.

In the second period, Six Nations outscored Burnaby 4-2 to take an insurmountable 12-3 lead into the second intermission. Burnaby made a short charge in the third, scoring three goals in a row, but it was all for naught as Six Nations regrouped and scored five in a row to put the game away. After Alex Gajic scored his second goal of the period to complete the hat trick, Keegan Hill scored his first goal of the tournament on the power play to end the scoring.

By the end of the game, Shawn Evans amassed eleven points on three goals and eight assists as the leading scorer of the game. Evans’ Six Nations teammate Cody Jamieson (tournament MVP)was second in points for the game, scoring eight points on six goals and two assists while Craig Point (5G) and Dan Hill (1G, 4A) each had five points for the Arrows. For the Burnaby team, Dane Dobbie, the fourth overall pick in the 2007 NLL entry draft, had four points on two goals and two assists while Alex Gajic (3G), Jamie Lincoln (2G, 1A) and Garrett Billings (3A) each tallied three points.

With this win, Six Nations can claim junior lacrosse supremacy, at least in Canada, as the Junior ‘B’ Six Nations Rebels defeated the Coquitlam Adanacs 8-2 to win the national title and earned the right to hoist the 2007 Founder’s Cup. There is one major lacrosse championship yet to be decided this year and that is the Mann Cup. September 7 is when the Senior ‘A’ tournament will begin from the Coquitlam Sports Center in British Columbia.