Defeating the Undefeated

Submitted by League Reporter, Jen Mutas

It’s hard to put into words exactly what Wednesday night’s game between New West and Coquitlam means, but here goes; on one hand the match means nothing, and on the other it means everything. Standings wise, the ‘Bellies and Adanacs have played musical chairs with top spot with only one point separating them for quite some time. New West won the first of the three game regular season-series back on June 1st, in a 9-8 nail biter at Queens Park that came down to the very last second. That game remained the only loss of the season so far for the A’s, and Wednesday night was a chance for redemption as New West was the only undefeated team left in the BCJALL.

First and second spot in the league are all but wrapped up considering Victoria in third place will not be able to gain enough points from their remaining three games to catch the ‘Bellies and Adanacs, so it’s safe to say the games between the top two teams from this point on are strictly for bragging rights. Both New West and Coquitlam were in action the night previous as both clubs collected wins off of Port Coquitlam and Langley (respectively).

The Adanacs were missing a few of their big names back at the beginning of the month, and tonight’s performance proved having Robert Church and Ben McIntosh back in the line-up with the new additions such as Mark Matthews, Simon Giourmetakis, and Robbie Campbell proved to be quite effective. From the opening faceoff on Wednesday night Coquitlam was persistent, intelligently aggressive, and played with determination both on defense and offense. This kind of play stifled the potent New West attack and the visiting ‘Bellies would find themselves down by four goals at the end of the first period. Matt MacGrotty made good on his only shot of the night as he rushed in on Dan Lewis short-handed while Kyle Robinson was serving time for a high stick, but that was the only time New West would find the net in the first.

The opening twenty minutes was relatively disciplined for both sides but it wouldn’t last for long and penalties had the snowball effect in the final two periods. New ‘Bellie Jay Card would put two past Lewis in the second period but despite their three goals, four scored from the Adanacs would cushion their lead by five after forty minutes of play.

Each side scored two goals in the third period which was enough for Coquitlam to defend their lead, but not enough for New West to catch-up and make it a close game. Body language was tough to ignore for the visitors, as the ‘Bellies are certainly not used to playing from behind, let alone by five goals.

Frustration was mounting and before the final whistle there would be a couple of departing tilts. Travis Irving decided on Matt Beers as a fighting partner, and while Beers was reluctant to go at first, once Irving ripped off his helmet and fed him a few shots Beers was more than happy to oblige. While those two were sorting things out, the helmets of Bobby Danilkiewicz and Kevin Neufeld hit the floor and the fans in the crowd now had two solid fights to try and watch. Both sets landed some quality blows and lasted for at least a minute, it really was tough to watch the better fight as both were very entertaining. Irving went down hard on his head to the floor and was a little wobbly as he was being helped off, and Danilkiewicz and Neufeld approved of their opponents as they ended their scrap with a handshake.

With the game arguably being won in the first period, the final score from the Coquitlam Sports Centre was 11-6 as the ‘Bellies undefeated streak comes to an end at the hands of familiar foes considering the last loss for New West would have been in the BCJALL finals last year, as the A’s won game six and advanced to the Minto.

With no shortage of emotion in the game these two teams certainly know how to get under each other’s skin which should make the final game of the series even more entertaining than the first two (July 7th in Coquitlam). Goaltending would be a factor in the match as well as Adanac goalie Dan Lewis saw the ball exceptionally well tonight. Not tested as much as he usually is in a game, Lewis did very well in one-on-one situations, and played a tactical game in net taking away passing lanes and choosing his rebounds carefully. At the other end of the floor despite eleven goals against, Brandon Mulligan hardly had a bad night for the ‘Bellies; most impressively seeming to not let the goals against get to him and remaining calm as he stayed focused and played the whole sixty minutes.