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Submitted by League Reporter, Jen Mutas

After doubling up the Shamrocks by a score of 12-6 on Saturday, the Adanacs returned to the mainland to take on the Lakers in a match between the two top-seeded teams in the BCJALL. It may be early in the season, but it’s never too early to fight for first place!

In their game against Victoria, the A’s had five goals with the man advantage in the first period alone. On Sunday Coquitlam would have just five power play opportunities in the whole game, and converted two of them- again in the first period. When the game was said and done, most of the action happened in the opening twenty minutes of the game and what an opening period it was. After being outshot 6-3 in the first ten minutes of the game and down by one goal, the Lakers quickly boosted their shots and were rewarded for it. Two goals from Chase Clark and Nick Bilic eight seconds apart would jump start the Laker offense, and closing in on the end of the period Burnaby was up by two goals and looked comfortable. Just as quick as the Lakers burst out, the A’s countered and never looked back. Three goals in the last two minutes of the period would give the visitors the one goal lead heading into the first break.

The second period left the fans wanting more action, and seemed to be a completely different game than the first. Burnaby improved on defense, holding Coquitlam to only one unassisted goal by Cody Craven. The A’s played a tremendously controlled game, with their first penalty coming in the last minute of the second when Garrett Stickler got busted for holding. Even while being a man down the A’s managed two legitimate short handed chances, and made Laker goalie Brodie MacDonald work for the saves, knocking one shot off the post.

Just like the second period, the tight checking and controlled play would continue and Coquitlam would be held to just one goal; but more importantly Burnaby would again be held scoreless for another twenty minutes, going forty three minutes without a goal. Adanac goalie Chris Seidel had a decent start to the game, but with a helping hand from his tight-checking defense, decent turned to impressive for the final two periods and he stopped thirty-two of thirty-six Laker shots.

At the end of it all the Adanacs had eleven players on the scoresheet to go with their 7-4 win, with all seven of their goals coming from different scorers. As much as physicality can be a vital aspect to the game of lacrosse, there wasn’t a lot of it between these two teams tonight, contrary to the predictions. For the most part both teams chose to forgo the penalty box and concentrate on beating the other squad on the scoresheet instead. Unfortunately for Burnaby going that long without a goal, especially against Coquitlam is what held them back from really competing with the A’s. Chase Clark had an impressive night for the Lakers, putting out some great defensive work killing penalties as well as scoring Burnaby’s first goal; and besides Matt Janzen, Clark was the only Laker to have two points at the end of the night.