On Saturday night the Victoria Shamrocks and Coquitlam Adanacs kick off their playoff series. The two teams met three times this season with Coquitlam winning the season series 2-1. All three game between these teams were close so it will be a great battle between the two teams in this series.
The Adanacs are the surprise team of 2012 after finishing in last in 2011 they have rebounded and have made their way back to the playoffs. The Adanacs have been so successful this season due to the strong play of their defense which allowed the fewest goals in the WLA this season allowing just 137 goals. Coquitlam also owes their success to goaltender Nick Rose who had a stellar season and led all goalies in wins, goals against average(gaa) and save percentage. Rose compiled a record of 10-7 on the season along with a gaa of 7.53 and a save percentage of .825. Coquitlam will rely on Rose in this series as he will have to continue his strong play if Coquitlam hopes to beat Victoria. On offense Coquitlam is led by Dane Dobbie and Daryl Veltman. Dobbie had 58 points on the season while Veltman had 51. Dobbie and Veltman will have to carry the offensive load for Coquitlam and will need to find a way to score early on Victoria and prevent being shut down by Victoria’s defense. Coquitlam will want to draw Victoria into a slow paced game and will want to play physical on defense to slow Victoria’s offense. Coquitlam does not have the offensive fire power to match Victoria goal for goal so they need to rely on their defense to force turnovers and beat Victoria in transition.
Victoria is one of the most balanced team in WLA having good defense and great offense. Victoria’s greatest strength is their offense as they had the top offense in the WLA scoring 195 goals. Victoria had 4 players in the top ten scoring leaders this season and will rely on their offensive depth in order to beat Coquitlam. Victoria is lead on offense by Corey Small, Jeff Shattler, Ryan Benesch and Derek Lowe. Small finished with 80 points on the season and finished second in league scoring while Shattler finished third in league scoring with 70 points. Victoria will need to use their speed and offensive depth to open up Coquitlam’s defense.  Victoria will want to score early and force Coquitlam into an offensive dual as Coquitlam’s offense is no match for Victoria’s. Victoria will rely on Matt Flindell in net and will need him to be solid in order to beat Coquitlam. On defense Victoria will want to focus on shutting down either Dane Dobbie or Daryl Veltman because if Victoria can shut them down Coquitlam’s offense will crumble. Victoria has all the tools to beat Coquitlam but they will need to bring their A game as Coquitlam’s defense is very hard to break.
My prediction in this series is that Coquitlam will defeat Victoria in 7 games. I expect Coquitlam’s defense  to be too much for Victoria’s offense to deal which will allow Coquitlam to win this series. Their is no doubt though that this series will be a slobber knocker and we will see the answer to the age old battle of Offense Vs. Defense.
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