If there was a team set to thwart the high-scoring Langley Thunder, it was the Coquitlam Adanacs.
And sure enough, the A's riddled them Wednesday.
Four nights after collaring the dynamic New Westminster Salmonbellies 5-1, Daryl Veltman zipped in three goals and goalie Nick Rose stopped 25 shots as the A's shaved the defending playoff-champion Thunder 7-6 in Langley to end their five-game Western Lacrosse Association win streak.
If there was a team set to thwart the high-scoring Langley Thunder, it was the Coquitlam Adanacs.The win boosted the A's to 3-4, while the Thunder slid to 5-3.
After a 4-4 run-and-gun first period, the A's defence took over and held the hot-shot Thunder to a mere two goals in the final two frames.
A's head coach Bob Salt credited not only Rose but his big and improved cast of defenders, including six-foot-four rookie Travis Irving, six-foot-two Brad Richardson and hulking captain Bruce Murray, who's listed at six-foot-one and 255 pounds.
"That was one of our priorities at the start of the year, to get bigger and stronger, and we definitely are," Salt told The Tri-City News.
It was Irving who took it upon himself to shadow Thunder star Lewis Ratcliff, who was limited to a meagre two assists.
"Ratcliff didn't know what to do," Salt chuckled. "Travis was always whacking him and got him talking... I don't know what was said but every time Ratcliff came down the floor Travis was there waiting for him. It was something to see, all right."
Things appear to be improving on the offensive end of the floor to for the goal-hungry A's, who got two big goals from another rookie, Ryan Johnson, a six-foot-two Coquitlam Jr. Adanacs' grad who appears to be a steal after being taken 15th overall in last winter's WLA draft.
Johnson's second tally 4:36 into the middle stanza proved the winner, vaulting the A's to a comfortable 7-4 lead before the Thunder scored twice, including a marker by another ex-Jr. Adanac Tor Reinholdt with 10 minutes remaining, to make things tight.
