For two periods, it looked like a role reversal of one hot team and one struggling squad.

In the third, the Coquitlam Adanacs got back in the swing.

The Western Lacrosse Association team picked up its third straight victory, defeating the Maple Ridge Burrards 13-8 Saturday at the Poirier Sports Centre.

Over the first 40 minutes, the Burrards looked like a team on the move and hungry for its first win of the season. Seven unanswered goals in the final frame, however, earned the Adanacs the win.

"We all know our offence has been struggling, our defence has been unreal and (goalie Nick) Rose has been standing on his head all year," noted first-year forward Ryan Johnson. "Maybe (Maple Ridge goalie Blake) Duncan had a bad game but we were tossing the ball around it seemed the net was real big. It was time we snapped out of our slump."

When PoCo native Derek Low, tallied his second straight goal to give Maple Ridge an 8-6 lead at 20 seconds into the third, it looked like a loss may be in the cards for Coquitlam.

But rookie Daniel McQuade found the top corner four minutes later and cued up a run that would see the Adanacs improve to 4-4-0 on the season.

Dane Dobbie collected three goals, while the freshmen trio of Travis Cornwall, Johnson and McQuade counted two apiece.

The Burrards dropped to 0-7-1, but got their first win of the season a day later against first place shareholder Burnaby.

That describes how topsy-turvy this year's WLA games are.

Coquitlam, who finished last in 2011, have rolled off three straight victories, knocking off last year's league finalists New Westminster and Langley. Prior to that, they had lost four straight.

Johnson thinks the club's approach has been strong throughout the ups and downs, but has really benefited from the confidence acquired during the recent run.

"It's all about the environment in the room, it's starting to turn more positive," he said. "[In] the four-game slide, we had everyone starting to get down on everyone but now it's much more positive."

Head coach Bob Salt said the effort wasn't there over the first 40 minutes, but everything came together in the third.

"We're missing some really key guys out there, (Maple Ridge) were yapping at us and knocking at us and things could have turned goofy. We didn't play well and it's a fine line," said Salt.

He noted the return of Dobbie from the injured list has been a big boost, but that the player continues to get sharper as he rounds into form.

"He's getting more fit. Dobs can do a lot of things but he's got to get way better physically," said Salt of the twotime league scoring champion. "Dobbie's one of the best players in the world, but if he's all banged up and out of shape they'll just pound the heck out of him."

The Adanacs, who played without injured veterans Kevin Olson, Curtis Olliffe and Steve McKinlay, visits Burnaby on Friday, before hosting the Mann Cup finalists from Langley on Saturday, 7 p.m. at the Poirier Sports Centre.