CAPTION: Candice Ward (Edmonton Sun)/Special to the Langley AdvanceNLL player Christian Del Bianco of the Calgary Roughnecks playing against Stealth player is Rhys Duch. It’s from an exhibition lacrosse game in Calgary back in December 2015.
By Steve EwenSpecial to the Langley Advance
Christian Del Bianco has always looked up to Tyler Richards.
He’ll soon get to glance across a lacrosse floor at him, as well.
Del Bianco, the Calgary Roughnecks’ 19-year-old netminder from Coquitlam, is scheduled to make his first National Lacrosse League start tonight when his team hosts the Langley-based Vancouver Stealth at the Scotiabank Saddledome – 6 p.m., tsn1410.ca – in the 2017 regular-season opener for both clubs.
The star of the Coquitlam Junior Adanacs’ Minto Cup national championship triumph last summer is slated to be Calgary’s backup this season, but projected No. 1 Frankie Scigliano is suspended because of his goalie brawl with Aaron Bold of the Saskatchewan Rush in a Dec. 16 pre-season game.
The Stealth are expected to start the 30-year-old Richards in net.
Del Bianco has grown up admiring his game and there are similarities in their styles.
The connection is natural. Like Del Bianco, Richards is a Coquitlam junior lacrosse product. Like Del Bianco, he’s smallish by lacrosse goalie standards. Del Bianco is listed at 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, Richards comes in at six-foot, 200 pounds.
“There’s something cool about him being in the other net,” said Del Bianco, who, oddly enough, says he’s only met Richards a couple of times in passing. “I’ll enjoy it.”
Del Bianco was Calgary’s third stringer last season. He had 19 seconds of playing time in an 11-9 road loss to Saskatchewan on April 2.
He opted to skip his college eligibility and enter the 2015 NLL draft.
The Stealth, oddly enough, were said to be keen on him, looking for a successor to Richards, but they didn’t have a pick until No. 19. The Roughnecks selected him at No. 15.
Del Bianco is the second-youngest player on any of the league’s nine opening-day rosters. Only Toronto Rock rookie defender Latrell Harris, 18, is junior to him in terms of age. Scigliano, who led the Maple Ridge Burrards to a berth in the Mann Cup Senior A national championship this summer, turns 25 in a few days. Buffalo Bandits’ netminder Anthony Cosmo is 39.
Del Bianco has two more seasons of junior lacrosse in the summer remaining. He was the best player in this year’s Minto Cup, highlighted by making 59 saves for the Adanacs in a 6-5 overtime triumph over Ontario’s Orangeville Northmen in the deciding game at Langley Events Centre.
The final night could have been even better.
With the score tied 5-5, Orangeville pulled their netminder in favour of an extra attacker as regulation time was winding down. Del Bianco foiled them and then fired the ball the length of the floor and narrowly missed the empty net as the buzzer was sounding. It gives you some idea of how calm he is under pressure.
“Christian’s angles and the ability to ready the shooters are exceptional, but the poise and patience in the net is unfounded for a goaltender of his age,” said Calgary coach Curt Malawsky, a former scoring star with the Coquitlam junior side.
The Stealth should have a good book on Del Bianco.
Stealth sophomore right-hander Thomas Hoggarth played last summer with Orangeville; Del Bianco robbed him with 35 seconds remaining in the 10-minute overtime to help secure the championship.
CAPTION: Stealth’s Logan Schuss
As well, Stealth sniper Logan Schuss was an assistant coach with the Delta Islanders, the team that beat Coquitlam in the best-of-three provincial final before losing its opening two games of the four-team Minto Cup to the Calgary Mountaineers and Orangeville to be eliminated from championship contention.
“We are excited for the opportunity to take on a young goalie in his first career start in the NLL. I remember my first game and there definitely are some nerves that go along with it,” Schuss said.
“That being said, he is a very talented goalie and we know he is going to come out excited and ready to play. We will review what film we have of him and his tendencies and go into this first game as prepared as we can be.”
Veteran goalie Mike Poulin, 31, who lost the starter’s gig in Calgary to Scigliano last season, jumped to the Georgia Swarm as a free agent this off-season.
The Stealth travel to Denver’s Pepsi Center Saturday to face the Colorado Mammoth (6 p.m., www.tsn1410.ca). Their home opener is Jan. 14 (7 p.m.) against Calgary at the Langley Events Centre.
