Despite a rare Nick Rose gaffe and his team's inability to bury the Victoria Shamrocks on an extended powerplay in the third period, the Coquitlam Adanacs won Wednesday.
Somehow, they won. And that's all that matters.
Daryl Veltman came out of the corner and connected on a last-gasp zinger in off the post with time winding down on the shot clock and in the game to propel the A's to an 8-7 triumph and claim the Western Lacrosse Association best-of-seven semifinal series in six games. The victory advanced the A's to the WLA final versus the defending WLA-champion Thunder, starting Sunday in Langley. Game 2 goes Tuesday at Poirier, 7:45 p.m.
"I knew the [shot] clock was running down and I just wanted to get it on net and hopefully squeeze a rebound out there [for us] to battle for," Veltman told The Tri-City News of his winning tally with 3:41 remaining. "Luckily, I found that inside pipe and put it in."
After trailing 2-0 early, the Adanacs rallied to net the game's next five goals, only to watch the Shamrocks storm back with four unanswered goals to take 6-5 lead. Victoria's sixth goal at 3:03 of the third came after A's hulking goalie Rose stormed far out of his net to track a loose ball, only to have the Shamrocks' Reed MacPhail snag it and plant it into a gaping Coquitlam cage.
The A's Kevin Olson responded with a goal 27 ticks later to knot the count 6-6, then the teams traded goals before Veltman's heroics. Rose made amends - plus - for his error, finishing with 42 saves, including back-to-back acrobatic stops on a Victoria powerplay near game's end. "Nick's been solid for us all year and he's allowed to make a hiccup once in a while," Veltman said, smiling. Chuckled A's head coach Bob Salt of Rose's blunder: "I can't even get him out for delayed penalties sometime, now he's coming out of the net to centre. I don't know what's going on."
For a team that finished in the cellar last season and started 1-4 this campaign, the A's have come a long way in a short time, Veltman conceded. And he thinks they're not done yet.
"It's just a testament to the will and the hard work that we put in all summer," said Veltman, who led his squad with three goals Wednesday. "We got a brand new team, a really young team. Finally, in the middle of the season we started to gel and worked well together and it's just carried on. We've got a great corps of guys here and I think we have the capability of taking it all the way."
Salt insisted his team is entering the final versus the Thunder as the definite underdog.
"They're the team to beat," he said. "I think we'll give them a bad time, a bit, and there's no pressure on us.
"We're not supposed to go to the Mann Cup, are we?"
