The Coquitlam Adanacs are probably happy there’s no longer photo radar vans parked along Brunette Avenue.
That’s because coach Pat Coyle doesn’t want his team to take its foot off the gas as they head into their BC Junior A Lacrosse League final series against the New Westminster Salmonbellies. The best-of-seven series starts Friday at the Poirier Sports and Leisure Complex before it shifts to Queen’s Park Arena in New West on Monday.
After a regular season in which the Adanacs lost only once—a 9-6 overtime defeat to the Langley Thunder back in early May—and swept the Victoria Shamrocks in the first round of the playoffs, Coquitlam coach Pat Coyle said it would be easy for his team to get complacent.
He’s trying to prevent that.
“The challenge is not to expect to win, because if we do, then we’re going to lose,” Coyle said.
A couple of rough periods in their series’ finale against the Shamrocks may have been just the reality check the team needed. And while the Adanacs recovered from a 9-6 deficit to outscore Victoria 9-2 in the third period and win the series, Coyle said the game was a “growing experience” for the defending league and Minto Cup champions.
“The first two periods were some of the worst lacrosse we’ve played all year,” Coyle said. “But we knuckled down in the third. We need to start that way, not just finish that way.”
The Adanacs and Salmonbellies were in lock step atop the BCJALL standings for about half the season until New West had a three-game swoon in June that included a 9-8 loss to Coquitlam on the green wooden floor at Queen’s Park Arena. The ‘Bellies finished the season with four losses in regulation and another in overtime.
But Coyle said those numbers are meaningless in the post season.
“I think it’s going to be a tough series.”
The key for his side, he said, will be to contain the Salmonbellies’ high-scoring runner, Connor Robinson, who finished the regular campaign with 50 goals and 130 points in 20 games. That’s more than twice his closest teammate, Carter Dickson, who scored 62 points.
“Their offence goes through him,” Coyle said of Robinson. “He’s going to get his goals. We just don’t want him getting six goals a game.”
Solid goaltending from Christian Del Bianco and a veteran defensive core led by Reid Bowering and Eli Salama will help make that happen Coyle said.
And while the Adanacs lack a superstar scorer like Robinson, being able to spread their offence around to a number of different players and line combinations could be an advantage, Coyle said.
“Our offence feels more like it’s by committee,” Coyle said. “If they’re going to key on certain players, it give other players the opportunity to step up. It’s like musical chairs for us.”
And that’s a tune that could send the Adanacs waltzing back to their ninth straight Minto Cup tournament.
“It seems like it’s easy, but it’s a lot of work,” said Coyle of his team’s run of success. “To strive for perfection can be exhausting.”
