The Coquitlam Jr. Adanacs have earned a return trip to the Minto Cup.
The Adanacs completed a three-game sweep of the Victoria Shamrocks with a 10-5 win Saturday, setting up a B.C. Junior Lacrosse League final with the New Westminster Salmonbellies. That best-of-five series begins Friday night at the Coquitlam Sports Centre, but with New West hosting this year's Minto Cup both B.C. teams have earned a berth in the four-team tournament that opens Aug. 17.
"I think the fact that we're both going to the Minto Cup means the weight's off our shoulders. We can work on things this series and there shouldn't be any funny business," said Adanacs head coach Neil Doddridge, who is quick to add, "We're not going to relax and we're not expecting them to either."
Doddridge sees the Salmonbellies as a similar team to Coquitlam, saying both are athletic with good goaltending.
"It's important that we have a good first period at home and we'll just go from there."
The Adanacs used a good first period to tame the Shamrocks on Saturday, jumping out to a lead of 3-0 after one and 8-1 after two.
"We took care of business early, that was important," said Doddridge, who this week was named as the league's coach of the year. "You need to take their spirit away. When you're up two games to nothing and you get up on them early you kind of take their hope away."
Jean-Luc Chetner and Tyler Buchan scored twice for Coquitlam, while Wesley Berg (one goal, five assists), Chase McIntyre (one goal, three assists), Steven Neufeld, Vincent Ricci, Jake Taylor and Challen Rogers rounded out the scoring.
Doddridge was particularly impressed with the stifling defence his team played in the first two periods of Saturday's game, surrendering only one goal to the Shamrocks who only found the net once in the final 27 minutes of Game 2.
Doddridge wasn't the only Adanac to pick up some league hardware. Robin Lowenberger was named defensive player of the year, David DiRuscio the top goaltender and Peter Dubenski earned the award for most inspirational player. Lowenberger and DiRuscio were also named first-team all-stars, with Michael Messenger making the second team.
Coquitlam lost last year's Minto Cup to the Ontario league's Orangeville Northmen, with the Adanacs' lone Minto Cup championship coming in 2010.
