The Coquitlam Adanacs got themselves back on even terms in the BC Junior A Lacrosse League playoffs by downing the visiting Nanaimo Timbermen 15-7 Wednesday evening at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex.
The victory evened the best-of-seven semifinal at a game apiece. Games 3 and 4 will be played Saturday and Sunday in Nanaimo. They’ll be back in Coquitlam for Game 5 next Friday (July 26) with the opening faceoff scheduled for noon. Game 6, if necessary, will be the following day in Nanaimo. And if the series is once again deadlocked requiring a seventh and deciding game it will go at noon on Sunday, July 28 at Poirier.
The Adanacs led 7-4 after the first period and 10-6 after two before running away with it in the third with a run of five goals before the midway mark of the period. The A’s bombarded the Nanaimo net with 25 shots in the first period and ended up with a 59-48 shot advantage.
Thomas Semple had an eight-point night for Coquitlam. Semple and Jaken Chester both scored four goals with Chester notching a pair of assists. Dennon Armstrong picked up five points with a goal and four assists. Colin Munro had two of each while Philip Buque and Ethan Ticehurst also scored a pair apiece.
At the other end of the floor, Coquitlam kept Nanaimo’s big guns of Thomas Vaesenn, Ryan Sheridan and Colton Lidstone, all of whom finished the regular season with more points than any A’s player, in check holding them to a total of four goals between them.
Coquitlam’s Nate Faccin stopped 38 Timbermen shots to get the win in goal.
The other semifinal between the New Westminster Salmonbellies and the Victoria Shamrocks is also tied 1-1.
sports@tricitynews.com
