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The New Westminster Salmonbellies completed their 4-0 series sweep of the Victoria Shamrocks early this week, improving their ‘08 record to a dominant 21-1. Their sole loss of the season was to Coquitlam Adanacs, who too look ready to advance to the Western Lacrosse Association (WLA) final and set up a rematch of last year’s championship.

Coquitlam went up 3-1 in their semi-final series with the Burnaby Lakers last night and will have an opportunity to close out their best of seven series at home this Thursday at 7:45pm PST.

“It was a key win tonight,” said Coquitlam GM Les Wingrove after the A’s pulled out a 6-5 win over Burnaby at Bill Copeland Arena on Tuesday night. It’s been the third one goal game between the two clubs, with Burnaby winning Game 3 by a 10-9 score in two overtimes.

“The last three games have been very close,” added Wingrove. “We hope to close out the series at home on Thursday but know we are in for another tough game. Burnaby is a good team and we want to play our best.”

Coquitlam pulled out the critical Game 4 win thanks in large part to an effective powerplay that capitalized on undisciplined play of the Lakers. Four of Coquitlam’s six goals came on the power.

“It’s a tough loss, one we threw away,” said Burnaby GM Paul Rowbotham, noting how the Lakers took four penalties in the last half of the third period. “Frustrating to say the least. We can play much better, just when we shall start is anyone’s guess. We will now try to win one game at a time.”

Coquitlam’s Jason Wulder and Andy Secore scored the final two goals of the game on power-plays with little over five minutes to play in the third period to secure the 6-5 Coquitlam victory.

Both goalies played well for their respective teams as the score would indicate. Chris Levis made 42 saves for Coquitlam and Curtis Palidwor had 34 for Burnaby.

Stopped in-tight earlier, Burnaby’s Cam Sedgwick scored on a long-range shot with one second to go to close the Coquitlam led to 3-2 after two periods. Sedgwick then opened the third period with another tally to tie the game at 3-3 before Jason Wulder scored his second of a game-high three power-play goals.

Burnaby scored the next two goals, one short-handed, to take a 5-4 lead with under seven minutes to play but could not hold on to even up the series.

Game 5 will be back at Coquitlam Sports Centre in a must-win for Burnaby. Game 6 and 7, if necessary, will be played at Burnaby on Friday and Coquitlam on Sunday. All games start at 7:45pm PST.

The winner of the Coquitlam vs. Burnaby semi-final will move on to face the New Westminster Salmonbellies for the right to advance to this year’s Mann Cup championship.

New West has been to the final each of the last two years, but has not advanced to the big dance. Last season was a similar situation in that the Salmonbellies had a dominate regular season and swept their semi-final opponent, but were in-turn swept in the final — by Coquitlam.

“What we learned the last two seasons in reaching the finals in both is this is a marathon and not a sprint,” said New Westminster GM Dan Richardson earlier. “We have some unfinished business to take of this year to get this club into the big dance.”

“We’re after our 25th Mann Cup this year, anything short of that will just not do.”

“We have had several meetings the last couple of weeks getting our young guys focused on the playoffs,” added New Westminster’s Chris Gill. “The difference between the regular season and post season is so much different than it is in the Junior leagues.”

“We need to regroup and get ready for the next round, because it is not getting any easier!”

New West defeated Victoria in a sweep by game scores of 12-8, 12-4, 11-7 and 10-7. They’ve been led offensively by youngsters Ilija Gajic, Cliff Smith and Jordan McBride.

Rookie goaltender Tyler Richards, who split duties with Matt Roik in the first-round, was recently named WLA Rookie of the Year along with Coquitlam’s Dane Dobbie. Dobbie currently leads the A’s in playoff scoring.

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