A 9-2 loss to the Six Nations Arrows on Saturday at the Minto Cup may have been the best thing to happen to the Coquitlam Adanacs.
The Adanacs are playing those very same Arrows in a best-of-five final for Canada’s junior lacrosse national championship that begins Tuesday night in Brampton, Ont.
Coquitlam coach Pat Coyle said the game, in which the Adanacs weren’t just outscored but also outshot, 58-32, by the Ontario champions, was a wake-up call his team needed.
“It really forced us to challenge ourselves,” Coyle said on Monday. “And we responded.”
That response was a 10-4 win over the Mimico Mountaineers on Sunday in the one-game semi-final to determine an opponent for the Arrows, who received a bye into the final after finishing the preliminary round of the championship tournament with three wins and no losses.
Coquitlam, whose only blemish in the preliminaries was the loss to Six Nations, scored the first three goals against the Mountaineers and never looked back. They led 4-2 at the end of the first period, and salted the game away by outscoring Mimico 5-2 in the second period.
Dennon Armstrong scored the only goal of the third period.
“That’s probably the best offensive game we played in the tournament,” Coyle said.
And the Adanacs will have to continue that kind of production if they’re to defend their Minto Cup championship against an intense, poised Six Nations’ squad.
“For us to be successful, we need to play as a five-man unit,” Coyle said. “If we’re relying on one guy, we’ll lose.”
Coyle said it will be especially important for the Adanacs to take control of games early, to quiet the vocal and knowledgable Six Nations’ fans in the old Memorial Arena.
“Hopefully we’ll take the fans out of it,” Coyle said. “Not everyone wants Six Nations to win.”
