GAME OF THE WEEK: Bellies honour Harry Ferguson and then have date with BCJALL's best

Tonight will be an emotional one as fans will pack Queen's Park Arena for an official goodbye to one of the hardest workers the game of lacrosse has ever seen.

Harry Ferguson died after a short bout with illness over the winter. His death was unexpected to many in the lacrosse world who knew him as a tremendous contributor to the game and a gracious soul who commanded the respect of everyone when he walked in to a room. 

As Walt Weaver told the New West Record when Harry passed: “He was well respected in all lacrosse circles, a true gentleman who bled the red,” noted New West’s Walt Weaver, who shared governing duties with Ferguson. “He was a real ambassador of the game, and he loved the Salmonbellies.” 

There will be few dry eyes in the rink as New Westminster and Coquitlam will honour him with a pre-game ceremony and face-off. 

The other special reason about tonight? It's the two top teams in the league, bitter rivals to the very end; it's New Westminster and Coquitlam for the first time in this BCJALL regular season. The A's sit atop the standings with a 7-1 record, while the 'Bellies are close behind at 5-0. They'll put their undefeated streak on the line in what could become the best game of the early season.

LAST YEAR'S HEAD-TO-HEAD

JUNE 1, 2016 -- 9-7 ADANACS

JUNE 21, 2016 -- 10-6 ADANACS

JULY 8, 2016 -- 12-7 ADANACS

GAME DETAILS

8:00 PM, QUEENS PARK ARENA

STREAMING - PLAYFULLSCREEN

Battling for BCJALL supremacy

While New West is playing just its sixth game of the season tonight, the Adanacs will cap off this game by hitting the mid-way point of the regular season already. Where does time go? 

The A's have a chance to take what would ultimately be a three or four game stranglehold over the standings with a road win tonight. And while they have dispatched their last four opponents, they are blowing them out in ways we are accustomed to seeing the purple and gold doing. They'll have to bring their A-game tonight. Why? Because New West has basically proven themselves to be one of the most dominant teams league-wide. 

The red and white have had a dominant defensive unit thus far and Erik Kratz has been almost lights out in goal. 

Commanding the crease

We're seeing arguably the two best goalies so far this season in del Bianco and Kratz tonight. In all three major goaltending categories (GAA, Wins, Sv %) Kratz or del Bianco are in first, second or third. Kratz leads the league with 4 GAA and an .889 save percentage, while del Bianco is second in GAA, third in Sv % and first in wins, and some would say he hasn't been his more dominant self so far this year.

But we all know the talent del Bianco possesses and there's no doubt that as the games get tougher, so will it get tougher to beat the reigning Minto Cup MVP. And if there's going to be a crew that can put the white rubber past him, it's probably this New Westminster crew. They're firing on all cylinders right now with guys like Connor Robinson, Jacob Patterson, Brine Rice and Colton Bykowski having strong starts to the season.

PREDICTION - This season seems more unpredictable than others, so naturally, this game could go a number of ways. But you have to think that with the energy in the building tonight, and New West's strong record out of the gate thus far, that they are favourites to win. We'll take the Fish to win on a memorable night, 10-9.