Beating the Victoria Shamrocks is one thing. Having a New Westminster Salmonbellies' cast-off help do it for the Coquitlam Adanacs is simply a pleasant bonus.
Unheralded rookie Mark Negrin matched team-leading scorer Dane Dobbie with four goals and one assist each to rally the A's -- long-time heated rivals of the 'Bellies -- to an emphatic 13-7 victory Wednesday over the Shamrocks at Poirier Sports Complex.
The win put the A's up two games in their best-of-seven Western Lacrosse Association semifinal series, with Game 3 slated for Victoria tonight (Friday). Game 4 is set for Sunday back at Poirier, 7:45 p.m.
Negrin joined the A's after being released by the Senior 'A' 'Bellies and then toiling under Ivan Tuura with New West's Senior 'B' squad. A Junior 'A' Salmonbellie grad, Negrin said he was just happy to get the opportunity to play with Coquitlam in the Senior 'A' ranks.
"I like being an Adanac," Negrin told The Tri-City News. "I know a lot of guys on the team so it was a good opportunity for me."
Negrin said toiling alongside the likes of Dobbie and Jason Jones, who dished out three assists Wednesday, makes it much easier for him to capitalize on his scoring chances.
"Jonesy's good at passing the ball and everyone's always distracted by Dob's, so that gives me the space and chances to score," shrugged the modest Negrin, who managed 14 points, including six goals, in nine outings with the A's during the regular season before helping to fill the void left the last two games by suspended scoring star Daryl Veltman, whose due back in the line-up tonight.
"It's those other guys that are the reason why I'm scoring."
A's head coach Bob Salt guided the Sr. 'A' Salmonbellies for seven years prior to joining the A's last year and said he's surprised as anybody by Negrin's performance since coming to Coquitlam."I didn't know him personally in New West but I'd heard of him," Salt said. "He had a rap that he's kind of soft but from what I can see he wants to play, and can. He fits in really well with the rest of our young guys."
The A's led 5-3 and 9-5 at the intermissions in the chippy affair, which featured 59 penalty minutes, including 35 to Victoria.
Racking up 13 goals while holding a talent-laden team like Victoria to seven is something you don't see every day, Salt said.
"Our players are the ones doing it," he said. "I think we're just doing the right things right now and they [Shamrocks] haven't figured it out. We're containing them and not allowing them to play their transition game, which they're pretty good at usually.
"You can't give them life, and the way you do that is by not playing well yourselves."
After Negrin and Dobbie, other A's goal-getters were Travis Cornwall, with two, Kevin Olson, Daniel McQuade and Ryan Johnson. Nick Rose made 31 stops in the Coquitlam cage.
In the other semifinal series, the defending WLA-champion Langley Thunder had a chance to sweep their series last night (Thursday) with a win versus the Lakers in Burnaby.
