Adanacs Win Home Opener

The Coquitlam Adanacs hosted the Delta Islanders in their home opener tonight and while it was a hard fought game, the Adanacs came out on top 9-7. 

The first period started off well for the Adanacs as Greg Batt opened the scoring at 2:22 on the first shot on goal, followed by a great give-and-go between Spencer Stevens and John Kraakman where Stevens picked up the rebound from Kraakman's shot and put it in the back of the net to give the Adanacs a 2-0 lead. 

With Batt in the penalty box for high sticking, the Islanders capitalized with 10 seconds remaining in the penalty when Eli McLaughlin scored his team leading, 5th goal of the season to cut the Adanacs lead to 1. Just over 30 seconds later, Shawn Richardson scored for the Islanders to tie the game up. 

The Islanders didn't stop there. Connor Davidson received a pass from Riley McLeod that led to a breakaway and Davidson made no mistake as he went in shorthanded and made it 3-2 for the Islanders. Less than 2 minutes later, the Islanders made some quick passes after a whistle which led to John Phillips giving the Islanders a 4-2 lead. 

Unfortunately for the Islanders, their lead quickly disappeared. With Evan Messenger getting 2 minutes for high sticking and 2 minutes for illegal equipment, the Adanacs capitalized on the 4-minute powerplay with both goals coming from Kyle Heiling, making it a tie game at the end of the first period.

The second period was a rather low scoring period as there were a total of 6 penalties and both teams were not able to get any sort of rhythm going. Evan Wortley gave the Adanacs a 5-4 lead at 2:24, but at 8:31, McLaughlin scored his second of the game on the powerplay to tie the game up again. The last goal of the period came at 10:31 when Thomas Moffat did a spin around shot that went off the post and in to give the Adanacs a 6-5 lead heading into the third period. At the end of the second period, Adanacs' goaltender Conner David seemed to have hyperextended his knee when trying to make a desperation save. He couldn't put any weight on his left leg and that was the end of his night as Riley Camazolla started the third period. 

The third period was roughly the same as the second period with more penalties than goals. There were three penalties before Messenger scored at 4:07 to make it a 6-6 game, but just over three minutes later, Wortley scored his second of the game to give the Adanacs a 7-6 lead. With Islanders' Davidson and Adanacs' Taylor in the penalty box, there was a bit more room to maneveur for both teams and it showed when Stevens notched his second of the game to give the Adanacs a 2 goal lead, but the Islanders got a goal from Messenger 13 seconds later to make it an 8-7 game. With less than three minutes left in the game, Adanacs' Klein got a 2-minute penalty for high sticking, but the Islanders couldn't capitalize to tie the game. Klein netted an empty net goal with 14 seconds left and the Adanacs defeated the Islanders 9-7.

3 stars of the game
1 - Coquitlam - Evan Wortley, 2 goals, 4 assists
2 - Coquitlam - Erik Klein, 1 goal, 2 assists
3 - Delta - Evan Messenger, 2 goals

The Adanacs will now head to Victoria (1-0) to take on the Shamrocks on Saturday and the Port Coquitlam Saints (0-0) will have their season opener in Delta when they face the Islanders on Saturday.