Skip to content

Thunder rolls to another championship

Langley senior A lacrosse team wins back-to-back WLA titles
41823langleyLewisRatcliffWLAThundercopy
Langley Thunder's Lewis Ratcliff fires home a shot past Coquitlam goalie Nick Rose during game three of the WLA championship series. Ratcliff scored twice and set up three other goals as the Thunder won the league title with a 9-5 victory in game six on Aug. 29.

The Langley Thunder will get another crack at the Mann Cup.

The senior A lacrosse team captured its second consecutive Western Lacrosse Association banner on Wednesday night, defeating the Coquitlam Adanacs 9-5 in game six of the best-of-the-seven championship series.

The game was played at Coquitlam's Poirier Sports Complex.

The top-seed Thunder won the series 4-2 over the No. 3 Adanacs.

After the teams traded goals in the opening period — Brett Hickey for the Thunder and Mark Negrin for the Adanacs — Langley took control in the middle stanza.

Coquitlam led 3-2 with eight minutes gone in the second — Shayne Jackson made it 2-1 Thunder before Ben McIntosh and Negrin gave the home side their only lead of the night — but Langley exploded for four goals in 4:16, with Jackson, Alex Turner, Brett Hickey and Lewis Ratcliff all finding the back of the net.

Ryan Johnson scored late in the period to make it 6-4, but that was as close as the Adanacs would come.

Ratcliff added his second of the night with five minutes to go.

Daryl Veltman did pull Coquitlam back to within a pair with 2:40 remaining, but Sam Cook and Todd Stockdale struck for empty-net goals in the last minute of play.

Ratcliff was named the game's first star with a five-point night (two goals, three assists) while Shayne Jackson was the second star with two goals and one assist.

Coquitlam's Nick Rose was the third star, making 37 saves as the Adanacs were heavily out-shot 47-30.

Brodie MacDonald made 25 saves in the Thunder goal.

The Thunder, who last the 2011 Mann Cup in five games to Brampton at the Langley Events Centre, travel to Peterborough for the best-of-seven Canadian senior A lacrosse championship series.