IL Indoor

Last night: Thunder prevail in defensive struggle with Adanacs

If you want to win a championship, you need to be able to win games in various ways. Wednesday night, the two-time defending Western Lacrosse Association champion Langley Thunder showed that they can win a defensive battle, shutting out the Coquitlam Adanacs for the final 27:52 to prevail 5-3 at the Langley Events Centre.

Coquitlam scored the only 2 goals of the first period, both coming off the stick of Jesse Guerin. Athan Iannucci and Alex Turner sandwiched second period Langley power play goals around a marker by Matthew Dinsdale to pull the Thunder within one at 3-2 after 40 minutes. Dinsdale would be the last Adanac to be able to beat Brodie MacDonald in the Thunder net. Adam Shute wasn’t giving up much at the other end of the floor, either. But Iannucci connected at 8:01 and Matt Leveque notched the game winner just 59 seconds later. Kyle Belton rounded out the quiet scoring night with just under five minutes to play to ensure the Thunder stayed perfect on the young season, running their record to 2-0. Coquitlam falls to 0-2. READ MORE »

Last night: Shamrocks and Timbermen win Western Lacrosse Association openers

The Victoria Shamrocks have been loading up for a run at the Mann Cup this year. The early returns are positive—in the form of a 10-6 season-opening win over Coquitlam in which they outshot the Adanacs 63-39. The Shamrocks ran out to a 4-0 lead after the first period and only high save percentages by Nick Rose (.833 in the first period) and Adam Shute (.846 the rest of the way) kept the margin of victory from being bigger.

Scott Ranger scored a hat trick and Cory Conway assisted on 7 of the Shamrocks’ 10 goals. Corey Small scored once and added 4 assists to help Victoria’s cause. Shamrocks’ goalie Matt Flindell posted the exact same numbers as Shute did—33 saves on 39 shots—to earn the win.

Coquitlam’s scoring was spread around with six different players scoring goals. Eastern import Jesse Guerin was their points leader with a goal and 2 assists in his WLA debut. Guerin finished second in Major Series Lacrosse last year with 22 goals and 37 assists for 59 points in 14 games. READ MORE »

Ben McIntosh the first among many Junior Adanacs headlining last night’s WLA draft

When half of the players on a team that has represented the BC Junior A Lacrosse League at the last four Minto Cups graduates in one year, it creates a rich draft for the Western Lacrosse Association. That scenario played itself out last night in one of the strongest WLA drafts in years, if not ever. Four graduates of the Coquitlam Junior Adanacs were taken in the first round and 10 in the first six rounds, headed by the Big Four of Ben McIntosh, Jeff Cornwall, Robert Church and Matthew Dinsdale being snapped up among the first five picks.

The Maple Ridge Burrards opened proceedings at the Langley Events Centre last night by taking righty forward McIntosh, who scored 3 goals per game (27g, 15a, 42pts in 9 games) after returning to the Adanacs from school partway through last summer and finished second in scoring at the 2012 Minto Cup. READ MORE »

Off the Crossebar Podcast with Defensive Player of the Week, Nick Rose

He’s coming off one of the best summer seasons by a goaltender in years, but it was the games with the Toronto Rock to end the 2012 National Lacrosse League season that really helped Nick Rose regain his confidence. Rose was traded to the Rock late in the NLL season from the Calgary Roughnecks after Toronto brass needed to shake things up, and he immediately flourished in his first gig as a full-on starter. He’s been bred to succeed, growing up in the Orangeville Northmen minor system, giving him a mental edge knowing he’s been playing with some of the best his entire life in one of the best-run systems out there. READ MORE »

Coquitlam Adanacs disappointed with playoff exit despite surpassing expectations

The Coquitlam weren’t even a playoff team last summer. This year, they were 2 wins away from going to the Mann Cup. But you know where “close” counts, and this is lacrosse, not horse shoes. Still, coach Bob Salt talked of the pride he has in his Coquitlam team. “We went with a plan to rebuild this team and for them to play like they did was awesome,” Salt told Coquitlam Now. “They played way, way better than most people thought they could.” The Adanacs saw their Western Lacrosse Association season come to an end Wednesday with a 9-5 loss to the Langley Thunder, who are WLA champs for the second straight season after dispatching Coquitlam in 6 games. READ MORE »

Excitement is in the air in Peterborough: Mann Cup tickets go on sale Thursday

The last time the Peterborough Lakers played host to the Mann Cup, the six games in their 2010 win over the New Westminster Salmonbellies were the hottest ticket in town. The clamoring for seats will begin Thursday with ticket packages going on sale at 1 pm. The top seats are tough to come by as the season-ticket base of over 2,500 has first shot at retaining their seats for the Canadian championship. Season ticket holders have till Tuesday, September 4 at 4:30 p.m. to pick up their 7-game Mann Cup package. Packages for other seats can be purchased starting Thursday. READ MORE »

Langley Thunder repeat as WLA champions, beat Coquitlam to advance to Mann Cup

For the second straight season, the Langley Thunder are the Western Lacrosse Association Champions as they defeated the Coqtuitlam Adanacs 9-5 in game 6 to win the series 4-2. The drama from game five seemed to be in the past as both teams showed up with the sole purpose of leaving the Palace on Porier with a W. However the drama wasn’t all gone as before the game both rosters took a strange twist. When the game rosters were handed in, there was one noticable omission from the Adanacs starting line-up. Dane Dobbie,  the heart and soul of the Adanacs team, was scratched and would be unavailable for coach Bob Salt for the biggest game of the year. But it didn’t end there. Moments before the Thunder were announced, GM Gerry Van Beek came up to the press box to let the official scorers know that Athan Iannucci was a late game time scratch and wouldn’t be playing. Before the opening whistle, two of the game’s best players found themselves not able to help their team and were left to join the 1,500 fans in attendance watching from the stands. READ MORE »

Unikely heroes help Adanacs to crucial win, cut Langley’s WLA finals lead to 3-2

As if the 2012 Western Lacrosse Association finals couldn’t get any wilder, Monday night the best of seven series saw four rookies make their play-off debut en route to a 7-6 win for the Coquitlam Adanacs. Coming off a disheartening double over-time loss Saturday night, the Adanacs faced elimination in game 5. They were able to withstand a late surge by the defending champions to give them life.

But the story on the night was the Adanacs goaltending. All season long,  WLA MVP and goalie of the year Nick Rose has been the key cog for Coquitlam. With twelve minutes left in the second period, Rose found himself on the outside looking in. The Adanacs held a 3-1 lead. Kevin Olson took the game’s first penalty and Langley HC Rod Jensen decided to take a gamble and call Rose on his gear. In an instant, the entire dynamic of the game changed. According to those who were in the refs’ room, Rose’s leg pads were measured at the top and deemed to be in the area of 2.5-3.5 inches too big. READ MORE »

Double OT thriller has the Langley Thunder one win away from their second WLA title

As the Orangeville Northmen were putting their names on the Minto Cup for the 6^th time in twenty years as National Junior A Lacrosse champs, a handful of their alumni were strapping on the pads for game four of the Western Lacrosse Association finals.  Tradition is built deep within the Northmen system and that winning tradition lives with them throughout their lacrosse careers. While winning is a huge part of their personae, family ties are even tighter. When one is down so is the other and when one is up, they are all up. It was easy to tell there was a little extra jump in the step of Nick Rose, Darryl Veltman, Damon Edwards and John Harnett last night as they looked to help the Coquitlam Adanacs tie the WLA finals up at two, versus a very fired up Langley Thunder squad. READ MORE »

Breaking News: Langley Thunder head coach Rod Jensen suspended for Game 3 of the WLA Finals

IL Indoor has just spoken with Western Lacrosse Association Commissioner Casey Cook and learned that he has handed out a one game suspension to Langley Thunder head coach Rod Jensen. After watching the video and speaking to a number of individuals, who saw the incident that took place Thursday night in Langley, the WLA feels as if they did the right thing.

“We have to give teams 24 hours notice on all suspensions and after looking at the tape this was right thing to do,” said Cook in a statement late this morning.

There will be more action to come in the way of fines but the time frame of notification had passed so no more suspension can be expected. READ MORE »