NLL Insider

Round 2 of the 2009 B.C. Junior ‘A’ Lacrosse League (BCJALL) will feature the Top 4 teams from the regular season in rematches of last year’s semi-finals. The Coquitlam Adanacs will go up against the Burnaby Lakers, who up-set the top seed last year, and the Victoria Shamrocks will take on the New Westminster Salmonbellies.

Coquitlam vs Burnaby

Head-to-head: Coquitlam 15-7, Coquitlam 11-9, Coquitlam 12-4

Coquitlam has been the class of the league and sits first in the latest National Junior ‘A’ Rankings after cruising to a 20-1 regular season. The Adanacs were in a similar situation last year, however, and the result wasn’t what they wanted: After winning the ‘08 BCJALL title, Coquitlam was bounced in three straight playoffs games by Burnaby in the semis.

“We’re prepared,” said coach Dan Perreault in an interview with the BCJALL at the conclusion of this year’s near perfect regular season. “That was last year, we learned something… I’m not worried about the choke thing, I think we’ll play well.”

The A’s lost their top four scorers from last year due to graduation, allowing Robert Church (45g, 107points, 19gp) to flourish. Aged-up as an Intermediate player, Church lit the league on fire this year, finishing with a league-best 107 points and the BCJALL scoring title.

Trevor Moore (36g, 102points, 19gp) also broke the 100-point bearer and will be considered for Offensive Player of the Year as a third-year. Moore’s NCAA Robert Morris teammate Corbyn Tao (32g, 73points, 19gp) and Jordan Weir (21g, 46points, 12gp) help round out a balanced Coquitlam attack that was second in league scoring only to New West. The A’s also had the league’s most power-play goals, with 22% of their total goals coming from the PP.

Burnaby’s go-to-guys are left-handed forward Riley Loewen (7g, 9points, 2gp) who continued his excellent season in the first-round, plus right-hander Shaun Dhaliwal (5points, 2gp) who had a league-best 17 playoff goals last year. Also watch for Chase Clark (3g, 6points) and Jackson Decker (2g, 7points) offensively.

The long-time former BCJALL champion Burnaby Lakers are led on D by 6-foot-7 starting ‘tender Brodie MacDonald (85.3SV%) and capable back-up Ray Hodgkinson (89.5SV%), defenders Matt Miyashita, Ross Dougan, Luke Domijan, Nick Bilic (3g, 6points) and captain Cam Appels.

The Lakers advanced over Delta in two-straight games, winning by 11-6 and 11-7 scores.

Matt Beers, Brandon Turner and Jim Clifford lead Coquitlam’s back-end. The A’s goalie tandem of Dan Lewis (84SV%) and Chris Seidel (80SV%) finished the regular season with the league’s best save percentages.

Victoria vs New Westminster

Head-to-head: New West 15-12, New West 8-7, Victoria 9-8

The defending BCJALL champion Victoria Shamrocks lost pro talent from ‘08 but returned a solid core of players, including forwards Joel Henry (37g, 58points, 15gp), Michael Pires (19g, 37points, 9gp), Kory Kowalyk (36g, 61points, 21gp) and Casey Jackson (20g, 49points, 16gp).

Karsen Leung (32g, 68points, 19gp), another NCAA Bellarmine recruit, has been very impressive as a rookie and has tons of NLL potential, while captain Matt Yager (21g, 69points, 20gp) (NLL Boston) led the team in scoring thanks to some extra O-minutes at the start of the season. Scott Stone (13g, 42points, 18gp) has also impressed in transition.

In net, Victoria’s Adam Hickey (79.2SV%) and Greg Krstic (77SV%) have split time, but Hickey will likely start against New West’s Neil Tyacke (82SV%).

New West was the highest scoring team during the regular season and they poured it on against Nanaimo in the first-round of playoffs, winning by impressive scores of 20-6 and 17-5, to sweep the T-men 2-0 in the series.

Stars Kevin Crowley (6g, 11points) and Curtis Dickson (6g, 9points) are the names we highlighted in our first-round playoff preview, and they delivered. New West also received offensive contributions from Daniel McQuade (5g, 10points), Mark Negrin (3g, 10points), TJ Cowx (3g, 7points), Leif Mydske (2g, 7points) and Tyler Digby (2g, 5points).

The ‘Bellies also racked up 124 pims in the opening round, to set up what should be another entertaining semi-final series.

Head-to-head, these two clubs have split their last two meetings with each team only winning by a single goal.

Tickets

Playoff tickets are available for purchase at the host rink, while Coquitlam’s games can also be found online at the junioradanacs.com. Dates for the second-round, best-of-five playoff series are as follows:

Coquitlam vs Burnaby

Wednesday, July 15 – Burnaby at Coquitlam, 8:00pm PST
Sunday, July 19 – Coquitlam at Burnaby, 7:00pm
Wednesday, July 22 – Burnaby at Coquitlam, 8:00pm
Sunday, July 26 – Coquitlam at Burnaby, 7:00pm*
Wednesday, July 29 – Burnaby at Coquitlam, 8:00pm*

Victoria vs New West

Saturday, July 18 – New West at Victoria, 5:00pm
Sunday, July 19 – Victoria at New West, 5:00pm
Saturday, July 25 – New West at Victoria, 5:00pm
Sunday, July 26 – Victoria at New West, 5:00pm*
Tuesday, July 28 – New West at Victoria, 5:00pm*

*If necessary

Visit the bcjunioralacrosseleague.com for game scores, and check back with the NLLInsider.com for more in-depth Junior ‘A’ lacrosse coverage nationally.

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