The Coquitlam junior Adanacs jumped out to a quick start and protected that lead effectively, beating the New Westminster Salmonbellies 9-3 in a feisty Game 1 of their best-of-seven B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League final on Wednesday.
A 3-0 lead, thanks to goals from former 'Bellie Larson Sundown, Chase Scanlan and Colin Munro, put the reigning league champions in the driver's seat after 20 minutes. New West battled back and goals by Cam Garlin and Tre Leclaire -- the latter fresh off his trip to Israel as part of Team Canada at the FIL field lacrosse world championships -- to get within a goal, but within two minutes the Adanacs were back on the board.
Markers from John Hofseth and Chase Scanlan restored a three-goal bump for Coquitlam.
In the third, Munro upped the advantage to 6-2 with a shorthanded effort at 3:04, followed by Hofseth's second of the night. Scanlan would also count his second, while Nathan Kozevnikov netted New West's other goal.
The game was marred with a number of fights and a couple of ejections in the third period, when the two teams were slapped with 66 combined minutes in penalties.
Game 2 of the series goes Friday, 7:30 p.m., at the Poirier Sports Centre, while Game 3 is Sunday, also at the Poirier rink. Game 4 is slated for Tuesday, 8 p.m. at Queen's Park Arena.
