Backcheck Fever

Submitted by League Reporter, Jen Mutas

Hosting the Saints just one day after their first defeat of the season at the hands of the Salmonbellies, the Adanacs were looking to use home floor advantage to put them a couple points higher in the BCJALL standings in a tough week where they play two sets of back-to-back games.

The visitors would provide the early spark on Wednesday as Richard Lachlan picked up a rebound from his teammate’s shot off the boards just as the thirty second clock expired to throw it past Dan Lewis, and Matt Laustrup made no mistake on an empty net as Coquitlam pulled their goalie for the extra attacker with three minutes left in the first.

Playing with a two goal lead after the first break, the Saints knew they were going to have their work cut out for them to keep it. As a result of a carried over back-check call in the first period, Brandon Bertoia would rifle a power play goal past Carson Michaud while running backwards across the top of the crease for the A’s first goal of the game. Coquitlam would have their chances in the second, but were having trouble setting up their attack; and despite not scoring a goal in the second, the Saints would still have the 2-1 lead going into the final period. The low score in the game came down to goaltending playing a huge factor at both ends of the floor; after two periods of play Michaud only allowed one goal from the A’s, and Lewis held Poco scoreless for twenty two minutes towards the end of the first period and all through the second. 

An interesting series of events unfolded in the third period- with the score being 2-1 in favour of the Saints after forty minutes, a check from behind call against Milan Marcetta would result in two Coquitlam power play goals from the same call, as the goals were scored inside the first two minutes of each double minor. This gave the Adanacs their first lead of the game, only to have the same penalty be called against them about eight minutes later. The result again, would be two power play goals inside each penalty of the double minor, putting Port Coquitlam back to the one goal lead. Just twenty seconds after their last goal with the man advantage Matt Laustrup would get a huge goal for the visitors as he and Jimmy Delaney had a two man break away all alone, and made it count against Lewis. A large celebration for the now two-goal lead ensued, but it was short-lived as yet another check from behind penalty was called this time against Joe Laleune, giving Coquitlam another four minutes to get to work on the power play and tie this game up. The A’s did just that, Taylor Morrison scored his second of the night for the first PP goal, and Brandon Bertoia would complete his hat trick just half a minute later on the second half of the penalty to tie the game up at seven goals apiece. Gaining possession with fifteen seconds left the A’s called a timeout to plan and execute a set play to hopefully gain a last-second lead, but Bertoia missed the net just as time expired so to overtime it went.

Both sides started the ten minute overtime period with a bit of caution as neither team wanted to be cited for another check from behind penalty with the win on the line. Chris Jones drove hard to the net for Poco halfway through the OT period, and from what I saw I can only assume, accidentally on purpose drove in hard enough to give Lewis a push in his net. Lewis went flying, and Jones of course had all the Adanac players on his case as well. Called for crease play Poco would again be playing a man down, but their PK was impressive in overtime with particular attention paid to Brock Whitely who despite looking tired had great defensive stick work and hustled hard to get the ball out of Poco’s zone. After killing that huge penalty both teams would have a few chances here and there as time expired, but there was still time for one more check from behind call against Emerson Scharnberg with just twenty seconds left, and reaction from the A’s bench would put them two men down as they got called for unsportsmanlike. They managed to hold on though, and the final score would remain just as it did after regulation, 7-7.

An impressive defensive performance from the Saints tonight as they managed to find the answer to Coquitlam’s offense, and taking a tie off the defending BCJALL champions is nothing to scoff at. A big reason behind the win for Poco was the play of their goalkeeper Michaud who had a solid seventy minutes between the iron facing 58 shots all together. Michaud was square to the ball, and calm under pressure, even as Coquitlam mounted their comeback in the third period.