Canada Avenges Pan-Am Loss, Tops USA 21-15 at Atlas Cup

Truly a hybrid of box and field, the version of the sport that will be played in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics remains a game of cat and mouse between lacrosse superpowers Canada and the United States.

Score one for the cat.

Three weeks after falling to the U.S. on a last-second goal in the Pan-American Sixes Lacrosse Championship final in Ontario, Canada returned the favor in Maryland with a 21-15 victory in the Atlas Cup.

The game was tied at 8 at halftime and at 9 early in the third quarter. Then Canada scored six goals in a dizzying three-and-a-half minutes, repeatedly exposing Team USA’s interior and off-ball defense with rapid ball movement and easy dunks on the crease.

By the time you blinked, it was 15-10. The Americans never recovered, hampered by two turnovers, a couple misfires and a pair of penalties during the exchange.

“We had a four-minute window of bad decisions that came back to haunt us,” U.S. head coach Andy Shay said. “It’s a hard mountain to climb after that.”

Canada shared the wealth. Thomas McConvey and Reid Bowering scored four goals apiece, Marcus Klarich and Will Malcolm each had hat tricks and Zach Currier, Clark Petterson and Finn Thomson each added a pair of tallies as the Canadians shot a blistering 62 percent (13-for-21) in the second half.

“Coach Eddie [Comeau] coined the phrase, ‘Be Canadian,’” Thomson said. “You can play fast and play patient at the same time. Just wait for the right shot. Sometimes that means making the extra pass or extra two passes, and that’s Canadian ball. It’s pretty ball.”

Thomson is one of four Atlas Cup players who were on the field Oct. 4 at Oshawa Civic Centre, where the U.S. stunned Canada 12-11 in the Pan-American final.

In that game, Liam Entenmann made a circus save, Coulter Mackesy scored the equalizer seconds later and Pat Kavanagh deposited an extra-man goal with 1.5 seconds left to give the U.S. its first sixes win over Canada since 2021.

Canada left nothing to chance Saturday.

“Definitely a driving factor for the guys that were there and everyone with Team Canada,” Thomson said. “When you lose to USA, it lights a fire in your behind. It gives you more motivation to come on their home soil and beat them.”

In some ways, Shay said, the U.S. played a better, cleaner game here than it did in Ontario — except for what he called a “lapse” in the third quarter. Matt Traynor led the Americans with five goals and two assists.

Traynor also tied for the team high with two ground balls, though Canada finished with a 13-6 advantage in that category, another differentiator in the game.

“They play at a high level,” Shay said of Canada, “and they’re coming for blood.”

Sounds a lot like box — an oversimplification the Canadians were happy to embrace Saturday. 

“These games are the pinnacle of the sport, Canada-U.S.,” said McConvey, who was named the Capelli Player of the Game. “I have the mindset of going out there and playing my game. Just play Canadian. It worked out for us today.”

Jameson Bucktooth scored six goals and Tayoni Galante added five to lead the Haudenosaunee Nationals to a 21-14 victory over Ireland earlier in the day.

Ronan Jacoby scored four goals for Ireland, which is preparing for next month’s European Sixes Lacrosse Championship in Spain.

The Haudenosaunee never trailed in the game, though Ireland did make it interesting with a late second-quarter spurt to pull within three.

But Ireland managed just one goal in the third quarter and could not recover.

Reigning Atlas Cup champion Canada sits atop the men’s standings at 2-0. The United States and Haudenosaunee Nationals are each 1-1. Ireland is 0-2.

Canada can clinch its second straight title in the event with a win over Ireland on Sunday.