In a close race finish for first place, winning a season series should have its rewards. But for the New Westminster Salmonbellies that prize will have to wait.
The junior A Salmonbellies pulled off the minor upset, besting the No. 2 team in the country for the second time this season with an 11-10 win over the Coquitlam Adanacs last Friday.
The victory, coupled with a 29-3 thumping over the Burnaby Lakers in the final regular season game for both teams, left New West two points behind the junior A's.
A forfeit win to Nanaimo back in May for playing an ineligible runner cost the-Fishmen the league title.
"That first place really doesn't mean anything at all. We're going to focus on the first round of playoffs," said New Westminster head coach Dan Perreault. "That first round is huge."
In Coquitlam, Josh Byrne's hat-trick goal proved the game-winner in what should be a playoff final preview.
The first-year junior ripped his sixth point of the evening to give the visitors the win over the first-place Coquitlam Adanacs at the Coquitlam Sports Centre.
New Westminster held the scoring edge for most of the otherwise close match, leading 2-0 on goals by Byrne and 17-year-old Jeremy Bosher in the opening two minutes of play.
Anthony Malcom gave the junior A 'Bellies a 6-4 advantage on a shorthanded counter early in the middle frame.
Bosher and Malcom then notched back-to-back goals, the second of the game for both, to start the third.
Cody Nass got his first goal for the junior Fishmen midway through the final period to make the score 10-7
Frank Scigliano made 30 stops in the New Westminster cage.
In Burnaby, the junior 'Bellies had a chance to pad their stats against a much depleted Lakers' squad.
Nass, an aged up intermediate, won the B.C. Junior Lacrosse League scoring title with 125 points - the largest aggregate total in more than eight years.
Nass' 42 goals and 83 assists, eclipsed Robert Church's 107 points set in 2009 and Garrett Billings' 104 points with the 2005 Minto Cup champion Lakers.
Eli McLaughlin, 19, also achieved a storied milestone, reaching 60 goals in a single junior A season, with the last goal of the game in Burnaby, coming in the final 36.2 seconds of the game.
McLaughlin's final goal tied the former Delta Islander with Wesley Berg of Coquitlam, who popped 60 counters in 2011. Jamie Lincoln also notched 63 tallies with Burnaby in 2007.
"I like the way we're playing," said Perreault, who, back in the 1970s twice posted 65-plus goal seasons with then-Burnaby Cablevision. "We have a lot more focus and we're playing good lacrosse at a time when you want to be playing your best."
Perreault pointed to the team's defence, transition game and special teams as areas of improvement.
"We've been working on all three all year," he added.
"We just got to continue to work hard and continue playing our best lacrosse at this point in the season."
New Westminster will receive a first-round bye in the playoffs and will likely take on Langley in the second round best-of-five semifinals. Victoria and Delta are competing in the other best-of-three quarterfinal series.
