BRAMPTON, Ont. -- Adam McGourty is known more for his checking than for his scoring but it was the defenceman's bounce shot that lifted the Brampton Excelsiors on their way to an 11-8 victory over the Orangeville Northmen on Saturday night to force a deciding game in the Canadian junior lacrosse championship series.
Brampton hasn't won the Minto Cup in 50 years. Thanks to McGourty, they've now got a chance to take it away from the defending champions.
With the score 8-8, McGourty rambled into the heart of the Northmen defence, where he seldom ventures, and fired the ball past goaltender Nick Rose with 4:24 remaining.
"I got a loose ball and ran as hard as I could, which the coach has always told me to do, and I shot as hard as I could," said the six-foot-two defenceman. "That's the first big goal I've scored in a while."
Dane Stevens gave the Excelsiors a two-goal lead after breaking free to take a Kevin Floris pass and plant the ball in a top corner of the Orangeville net and Cam Flint added an empty-netter to cap the winning Brampton surge. It was the second goal of the game for each.
Brampton had lost six consecutive games this post-season to their regional rivals so finally beating them is a huge boost of confidence heading into the Sunday night showdown at the Powerade Centre.
"We have an excellent chance," said McGourty. "We've just got to bring the same effort and we'll be fine."
Andrew Potter had been held off the scoresheet Friday in Orangeville's 10-9 victory in the opener of the best-of-three final but he broke loose for two big goals Saturday. The Excelsiors need the regular-season OLA scoring champion to put more balls behind Rose if they hope to win the Minto Cup. Potter says he's up to the challenge, and so are his teammates.
"We've got 15 veterans who could be playing their last junior game," said Potter. "We'll be playing every shift balls out."
Also scoring for the Excelsiors were Michael Burke, Scott Tinning, Ryan McClelland and Chris Corbeil.
For Orangeville, which won the opener 10-9 Friday, Adam Jones scored five goals and Jesse Gamble, Sean Gillies and Brandon Ivey added one each.
"That was a hard-fought battle," said Orangeville coach Matt Sawyer. "There were momentum swings and that was Jr. A lacrosse at its finest.
"Some of our guys got nicked up during the game. We battled but came out on the wrong. You can't win them all but our effort was certainly there."
Sawyer wants a stronger defensive effort in the deciding game.
"We're not used to giving up the numbers we have the last couple of games," he said. "We need to be better from top to bottom. All aspects of our game need to be better and we expect that to happen."
Brampton is seeking its first Minto Cup title since 1959, while Orangeville is chasing its second in a row and fifth overall.
Brampton coach Brian Beisel had said after the Friday loss he still felt the Northmen were beatable.
"If you work hard, you can beat anybody," he said after the 11-8 triumph. "This was probably the only full 60 minutes we've had in the last couple of weeks."
He was happy to see an unsung hero such as McGourty get some glory.
"We've been telling him all year, `You're going to have a big goal,' and that one, obviously, was huge," said Beisel.
More than 2,500 spectators watched Saturday and there'll be more than that on hand for the finale.
"We're just going to come out and play lacrosse and so are they and I'm sure it's going to be a great game," said Beisel.