The Coquitlam Adanacs won their eighth BC Junior A Lacrosse League championship in nine years Monday night.
But there was no exuberant parade of the trophy around the concrete floor at the Poirier Sports and Leisure Complex.
In fact, the players didn’t want to touch the trophy at all.
That’s because their work isn’t yet done, said Adanacs’ coach Pat Coyle after his team beat the New Westminster Salmonbellies 9-6 in the fifth game of the best-of-seven series that Coquitlam won four games to one.
“We’re really happy we won this, but this is just leading to the next step,” Coyle said.
The next step is the opportunity to defend their Minto Cup national championship which begins Aug. 17 in Brampton, Ont.
Coyle said the tough, grinding series against the Bellies, in which the high-flying Adanacs — who scored an average of 12 goals a game in the regular season — managed to break double-digits only once, was the perfect preparation for the opposition they’ll face in Ontario.
“However hard this was, it’s going to be 100 times harder than this,” Coyle said. “Whether it was us or them going back east, we’re going to be better prepared because of the calibre of it.”
After Nick Chaykowsky’s second goal of the game gave the visitors a 2-1 lead 3:20 into the second period, the Adanacs seemed to find another gear and an increasing number of holes around New West goalie Eric Kratz, the winner of the Monty Leahy award as the league’s top goalie.
Coquitlam’s deficit lasted just over two minutes before Keenan Koswin got them back on even terms. His goal sparked a run of five straight that put the home team up 6-2 before Brine Rice stanched the barrage with 52 seconds left in the frame to get New West back within three.
A fight between the Adanacs’ Chase Scanlan and Preston Lupul of the Salmonbellies that was instigated by a high stick from Coquitlam’s Philip Buque seemed to energize New West. Eight seconds into the ensuing power play for Buque’s stick infraction, Connor Robinson ripped a low shot just inside the post behind Coquitlam keeper Christian Del Bianco.
New West continued to carry the play, and six minutes later Jeremy Bosher made it 6-5.
Then, with 8:20 left on the clock, Nick Chaykowsky scored his hat trick goal to tie the game and put everyone in the tepid arena on the edge of their seat.
With the prospect of overtime looming, runner Nick Jensen converted a set-up from defence man Eli Salama to put the Adanacs back in front 7-6. There was 3:29 left on the clock, and 25 seconds later captain Reid Bowering gave the team some breathing room with an unassisted goal as he outsprinted Carter Dickson of the Salmonbellies from the neutral zone before depositing his shot behind Kratz.
Jensen sealed the deal into an empty net with 1:49 left to play.
Coyle said he wasn’t surprised the Salmonbellies were able to battle their way back to even terms in the third period.
“That’s sort of the nature of the game, there’s ups and downs,” Coyle said. “The margin of errors for these games was so small.”
Most importantly, Coyle said, his players responded.
“They may have had a couple of minutes there, but we came back and that’s what matters.”
And that fortitude will serve the Adanacs well in defence of their Minto Cup championship.
“We’re going to have earn every inch,” Coyle said.
