During the regular season in the Western Lacrosse Association, the Coquitlam Adanacs had the best team defence, anchored by the best goaltender in Nick Rose.
Coquitlam used the defensive and goaltending formula Saturday at Bear Mountain Arena to open the WLA best-of-seven semifinal with an 11-9 win over the Victoria Shamrocks.
During the 18-game regular season, Coquitlam gave up a league-low 137 goals while Rose, who turned in another outstanding performance, led in most of the goaltender categories.
The Shamrocks peppered Rose with 57 shots, but most of them were from long range. Rose's best save of the game came in the first period came when he dived back into the net to foil Curt Morwick, who was staring at an open net. The Victoria goaltending duo of starter Matt Flindell and Chris Levis faced 39 shots.
"We played very undisciplined lacrosse tonight,'' said Shamrocks' assistant coach Dave Lowden. "We have to be fully prepared for a seven-game series.
"In the third period, we played well, and we need to take that momentum and discipline into the game on Wednesday. For the first two periods, we weren't able to penetrate the way we need to in the this series. Coquitlam has built their team around the goaltender [Rose] as they know that he will stop most of the shots and they can transition off that.''
Dane Dobbie sparked the Adanacs with three goals and three assists. Jason Jones scored four goals for Coquitlam while Kevin Olson added two. Jon Harnett and Damon Edwards also tallied for Coquitlam.
Jeff Shattler, Derek Lowe and Corey Small led Victoria with two goals each while Kyle Morwick, Ryan Benesch and Matt Yager notched the others.
Victoria trailed 10-7 near the midway mark of the third period before storming back on goals by Yager, Lowe and Benesch.
Edwards settled the issue with an empty-net marker at 19: 34.
Coquitlam finished with three power-play goals and two shorthanded markers.
Victoria, the power-play leaders during the regular season, had two with the man advantage.
Game 2 of the series is Wednesday in Coquitlam. Game 3 is scheduled for Friday, 7: 45 p.m. at Bear Mountain.
OVERTIME: In the other semifinal, Langley Thunder has a 2-0 lead after Friday's 9-6 against the Burnaby Lakers.
