IL Indoor

Maple Ridge Burrards have renewed confidence as they open tonight vs. Langley

The Maple Ridge Burrards are absolutely stoked to get 2013 started. And really, can you blame them? Winning just 4 Western Lacrosse Assocation games in 2012, the Burrards believe they’ll do an about-face this summer and team president Lance Andre is brimming with confidence. “We’re going to be one of the highest-scoring teams in the league,” Andre told The Maple Ridge News. “It’ll be exciting.” Sounds bold, but when you have Curtis Dickson back in the lineup after he missed most of last season with an injury, you understand. Throw in the addition of Aaron Pascas, who also missed time with injury, and Joel Dalgarno, who missed all of 2012 for work commitments, and the Burrards are eager to test their new lineup. They’ll get that chance tonight when they open their 2013 season tonight against the Langley Thunder as they take the first step toward turning around a 4-13-1 season from a summer ago.

Curtis Dickson and Rhys Duch on Boxla Beat

This week’s edition of Boxla Beat is star-studded with righty offensive players. Any list of the best in the game at that position won’t run too far before you hit the names Curtis Dickson and Rhys Duch, a pair of Team 22 sponsored athletes. The Calgary Roughnecks Superman is coming off a weekend where he scored Calgary’s last three goals in a comeback overtime win over Colorado, but there’s no resting on their laurels to be done as Dickson’s club heads to Washington to take on Duch’s Stealth in a game with huge playoff seeding implications. Enjoy a pair of great conversations with Dickson and Duch on Boxla Beat on NLL Radio, brought to you by Marianne Beacon Bowen Therapy.

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 »

Dalgarno resuscitates drowning woman

Colorado Mammoth and Maple Ridge Burrards forward Joel Dalgarno, who hasn’t played for the last year while he commenced his career as a firefighter, put his life-saving training to good use by resuscitating a drowning woman. Dalgarno was off duty when lifeguards pulled the woman from a pool. “I just started CPR right away and followed the protocols that I have learned with the Coquitlam Fire Department and it worked out really well,” Dalgarno told the Coquitlam area Now. From the sounds of the article, both Dalgarno and Port Coquitlam Fire Chief Nick Delmonico are taking the incident pretty much in stride. You know, it’s just something that firefighters do. That’s true enough, but the simple fact is that the woman didn’t have a pulse when Dalgarno got to her and less than a minute later she did. Well done, Joel Dalgarno. It’ll be nice to see you back on the lacrosse floor.

Superman flies again: Curtis Dickson drops a sock trick on non-playoff Salmonbellies

The New Westminster Salmonbellies miss the Western Lacrosse Association playoffs and there’s a pretty simple reason: Curtis Dickson is healthy. A tweet from IL Indoor’s own Teddy Jenner captured the essence of how good Dickson was last night for the Maple Ridge Burrards in their 12-6 win over the Bellies: “I know it’s the last game of the @WLALacrosse season and he’s only played 2 games but can we add @CurtisDickson17 to the MVP list? #unreal”. Dickson scored six goals, including two on the power play and one shorthanded, as the Burrards denied New Westminster a playoff spot. READ MORE »

Last night: Adanacs slip ahead in WLA race for second, close ground on leading Thunder

Three of the four teams that were tied for second place in the Western Lacrosse Association at the start of the day yesterday were in action last night, so the playoff implications on the standings were obvious. Coquitlam emerged slightly from the pack, taking a 10-5 road win in Burnaby to pull two points ahead of the Lakers, Victoria and New Westminster. The Adanacs also crept within two points of the league-leading Langley Thunder. Victoria missed a chance to keep pace with Coquitlam when they fell 15-11 to the last-place Maple Ridge Burrards, who won for just the third time in 16 games this year. READ MORE »

WLA Power Rankings: and down the stretch they come

The old horse racing term describes the final weeks of the Western Lacrosse Association’s 2012 season. With last night’s win over the Nanaimo Timbermen, the New Westminster Salmonbellies have created log jam for second place. The Bellies join the Burnaby Lakers, Victoria Shamrocks and Coquitlam Adanacs with 16 points which is still four points back of the Langley Thunder and three ahead of the Timbermen. With just 13 games remaining, the only team eliminated already are the Maple Ridge Burrards but with four games left against Burnaby Coquitlam and Victoria twice, Nanaimo pretty much need to win out, if not go three of four if they hope to make the playoffs for the first time since coming back into the WLA in 2005.

It’s going to be a wild finish this year and it’s most definitely going to be exciting to watch as we continue the process of anointing the western reps for the 2012 Mann Cup in Ontario. Remember all WLA games are streamed live via www.theboxrocks.com and www.langleyeventscentre.com (Thunder home games) and tonight fans get a double dip as the Shamrocks host the Burrards and the Lakers and Adanacs have a 2^nd place duel in Burnaby. After the jump check out this week’s power rankings as we head into the final 10 days of play. READ MORE »

Last night: WLA standings get even tighter with Adanac and Timbermen wins

The Western Lacrosse Association enters the  final fifth of its season with a gaggle of teams jockeying for playoff spots and positioning. Five teams are jammed within three points for second through sixth place after last night’s games, in which Nanaimo downed Maple Ridge 12-9 and Coquitlam beat Victoria 10-9. We could go through the standings in detail but it’s probably easier if you just take a look for yourself. Besides merely making the playoffs, final placement is critical because all of the top six teams have winning records at home while only first-place Langley is above .500 on the road. READ MORE »

WLA Notebook: New Westminster searching for consistency as home stretch approaches

The New Westminster Salmonbellies insist there is no panic. Urgency, maybe. But no panicking. And while the team does have 5 games remaining in its Western Lacrosse Association regular season, the reality of the situation is that not all is well in New Westminster. The team is 6-7 through 13 games and is 1-3 in its last 4 games. We’re just not clicking right now,” New West defender Ian Hawksbee told The Royal City Record. “We’re just trying to battle through it as a team.” The Salmonbellies get their first chance at finding their form tonight when first-place Langley comes to town. READ MORE »

Maple Ridge Burrards trade top scorer Derek Lowe to Victoria Shamrocks

When a player like Derek Lowe gives you 9 seasons and nearly 400 points, you do what you can to make him happy. So the Maple Ridge Burrards did that, trading their top scorer to the Victoria Shamrocks on Thursday for a second-round pick in the 2013 Western Lacrosse Association draft. The Burrards are the bottom of the WLA table with a 1-9-1 record, which obviously does not bode well for a playoff berth. So the 30-year-old Lowe requested a trade to a contender and Maple Ridge obliged. “It’s obviously a very historic club that’s also a contender and Bear Mountain has always been one of my favorite places to play,” he told told the Maple Ridge News. “I really think we have a good shot to go far this year and hopefully be playing into September.”