Venom drops first two games at Founders Cup
The Kamloops Venom opened the Founders Cup Canadian junior B lacrosse championship with two losses on Tuesday.
The Venom, the B.C. champion, is one of nine teams at the championship, which runs through Sunday in Six Nations, Ont. Kamloops opened with a 7-6 loss to the Manitoba Gryphons yesterday morning, before falling 18-6 to the host Six Nations Rebels last night.
The Rebels broke open a 4-3 game with 10 second-period goals.
Dallas John had four goals and three assists for the Rebels, who fired 71 shots on Kamloops goaltenders Cody Cook and Mitch Horsman. Kevin Davey also had four goals, and Brine Rice, Tony Doxtator and Ian Martin each scored twice for Six Nations. Daniel Henhawk, Danton Miller, Jordan Monahan and Wayne Hill also scored in support of Donovan Fleischer, who stopped 20 shots.
Quinn Smith had three goals and two assists for Kamloops, with Ryan Landels adding three helpers and Blaine Boomer, Riley Donahue and Brady Jorgensen also scoring.
Earlier, Manitoba scored twice in the final four minutes in beating Kamloops. Manitoba actually took a 4-2 lead after the first period, with Luc Magnan, Paul Nicholson, Brandon Stuebing and Mat Garvey scoring.
But Kamloops, which got first-period goals from Smith and Landels, scored the first three goals of the second period - Chris Pond, Rob Peterson and Kyle Pauwels did the damage.
Before the second period was out, Stuebing had tied the game 5-5, but Kyle McLellan gave Kamloops a lead with 7:30 remaining in the third period.
Nicholson and Luc Sanders scored 31 seconds apart - at 16:03 and 16:34 - to give the Gryphons a 7-6 lead.
Horsman made 30 saves for the Venom, while Matt Rhoden turned aside 40 shots for Manitoba. Donahue and Smith each had three assists, as did Manitoba's Garvey.
The Venom has two round-robin games remaining - it will play Team Nova Scotia today, before finishing the round-robin against the Calgary Mountaineers on Thursday.
Kamloops will have to finish first or second in its five-team pool to qualify for Saturday's semifinals. The final is scheduled for Sunday afternoon.