NLL Insider

New West's Ilija Gajic has 18 points in four games.

The Western Lacrosse Association (WLA) has been unpredictable this season and it may take the final week of the regular season to decide the playoff seedings. But the playoff bound teams are set.

The New Westminster Salmonbellies (11-3-2) convincingly defeated the Victoria Shamrocks (12-3) last week to pull into a first-place tie. The Langley Thunder (9-5-1) sit comfortably in third and the Coquitlam Adanacs (8-8) will sneak into the playoffs despite a 1-6 record in their last seven games.

Maple Ridge (7-10), Nanaimo (3-10-2) and Burnaby (2-13-1) are out.

WLA Rewind, Last Week

NEW WEST captured two victories last weekend with wins over Victoria 13-6 and Maple Ridge 12-11 to jump into a first-place tie with the Shamrocks.

• ‘Bellies keep heat on Shamrocks: Times Colonist
• New West Routs Victoria, 13-6: Salmonbellies.com
• Scott Stewart was named the league’s player of the week with eight goals, 10 points over the weekend

VICTORIA previously was labeled the team to beat after a great start: NLL Insider. But in addition to their loss to New West, Vic two weeks ago only narrowly beat Coquitlam 11-10 and lost their second game to Langley 12-10: NLL Insider.

• Maybe it was a Full Moon: VictoriaShamrocks.ca
• Lewis Ratcliff has been held to one goal in each of Victoria’s last three games but still leads all scorers with 93 points in 15 games. Teammate Rhys Duch is second with 71 points

LANGLEY captured victories last weekend over Coquitlam 12-10 and Burnaby 15-5. The young squad features some of the game’s top National Lacrosse League (NLL) prospects in Garrett Billings, Kyle Belton, Stephan Leblanc, Joe Vetere and Alex Turner.

• Langley is currently on a six-game win streak
• Thunder qualify for the second season: Langley Times
• 20 Questions with the Thunder’s Matt Leveque: NLL Insider

COQUITLAM is still trying to gel as a team. They lost 12-10 to the Thunder, then beat Nanaimo 13-8.

• WLA Adanacs thwarted by Thunder: Tri-City News
• The A’s victory over Nanaimo ended a six-game losing streak

MAPLE RIDGE and NANAIMO lost over the weekend, eliminating themselves from playoff contention. Going 2-for-10 on their powerplay, the Burrards lost a 12-11 heart-breaker to New West. The T-Men fell 13-8 to Coquitlam.

• ’Bellies barely beat Burrards: New West News Leader
• T-Men Eliminated From Post Season: Tmen.ca

WLA Final Standings

Currently tied in the WLA Standings, Victoria has three games left (vs Burnaby, Coquitlam, Nanaimo) – to New West’s two (vs Langley, Burnaby) – and hold the tie-breaker on the ‘Bellies.

Langley will finish third if they win any one of their remaining three games (vs New West, Coquitlam, Nanaimo) or if Coquitlam drops one (vs Langley, Victoria). Those two teams face-off on Saturday night.

WLA Schedule, This Week

Potential first-round playoff opponents New Westminster and Langley will meet July 22 in this week’s WLA Game of the Week to broadcast free, online at theboxrocks.com.

The complete WLA schedule for the week is as follows:

New Westminster at Langley – Wed, Jul 22, 7:45 pm PST
Burnaby at Victoria – Fri, Jul 24, 7:45 pm
Maple Ridge at Nanaimo – Sat, Jul 25, 7:00 pm
Langley at Coquitlam – Sat, Jul 25, 7:45 pm

Note: The East is just starting their playoffs: NLL Insider. The WLA champion will meet the winner of the East’s Major Series League (MSL) in B.C. for the Mann Cup championships, September 4-12.

Reminder: B.C. Junior ‘A’ Lacrosse League (BCJALL) semi-final playoff series also resume tonight: NLL Insider.

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