MONTREAL – The Impact scored twice within a minute late in the match to give the Impact a 2-2 draw against the Vancouver Whitecaps in the first leg of the Amway Canadian Championship final on Wednesday.
Defender Laurent Ciman scored for the defending champions Impact in the 84th minute and forward Anthony Jackson-Hamel added a second for the home side in the 85th to erase Vancouver’s two-goal lead.
Darren Mattocks and Pedro Morales scored for the Whitecaps in the second half.
Because the Canadian Championship is a two-legged aggregate series, Vancouver has the advantage going into the second leg of the final because of its two away goals.
The return leg goes Aug. 26 at B.C. Place in Vancouver.
The winner will host the Voyageurs Cup and advance to the 2016-17 CONCACAF Champions League.
Ciman got the first goal back for the Impact with six minutes remaining on the clock, heading home a corner kick.
With the Saputo Stadium fans still buzzing, substitute Jackson-Hamel connected on a short cross from midfielder Justin Mapp and fired home the equalizer from close range.
The Whitecaps have never lifted the Voyageurs Cup, losing in the final on five occasions since the inaugural tournament in 2008.
Montreal has won the Canadian Championship three times, including the last two years.
Things looked grim for the Impact with 10 minutes remaining on the clock.
Though Montreal controlled much of the encounter, Vancouver made the most of a counter attack and scored on its second shot of the game.
Poor coverage by the Impact allowed Mattocks to slip in behind Montreal’s defenders, and the Jamaican striker deflected Kianz Froese‘s low cross into the bottom left corner of Eric Kronberg’s net.
The Whitecaps doubled their lead in the 72nd.
Morales tricked Kronberg on a free kick from a tight angle, slotting the ball between the ‘keeper and the post on the short side.
As is often the case in tournament matches, both teams kept several of their regular starters on the bench.
Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush and midfielders Calum Mallace and Andres Romero watched from the sidelines.
Ignacio Piatti and defender Victor Cabrera did not dress.
Coach Carl Robinson made eight changes to the Whitecaps squad that beat Real Salt Lake 4-0 in Major League Soccer play last Saturday. David Ousted, Gershon Koffie, Octavio Rivero and Robert Earnshaw started the game on the bench.
The Impact started the game strong.
Midfielder Maxim Tissot, who played on the left wing, almost put the home side in front three minutes in, but his curled shot hit the post to goalkeeper Paolo Tornaghi‘s left.
Tissot had another chance in the 13th, but the 23-year-old deflected a Marco Donadel free kick well over the crossbar.
Montreal led 8-0 in shots at halftime.
Mapp, subbed on in the 61st minute for Tissot, made his first appearance for the Impact since dislocating his shoulder more than five months ago.
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