Jr. Thunder slow Lakers, sets up showdown with Shamrocks

With little margin for error, the Langley Junior Thunder kept hope their playoff dreams with a victory in their home finale.

The Thunder received three goals from Tesi Oakes and two goals and four points apiece from Ryan Martel (two goals, two assists) and Nathaniel Kozevnikov (four assists) in a 7-4 victory over the visiting Burnaby Junior Lakers in BC Junior A Lacrosse League action at Langley Events Centre on Thursday night.

The win improved the Thunder to 9-7-1 and at 19 points, they are two back of the Victoria Junior Shamrocks (10-6-1) for the fourth and final playoff spot. Both teams have four games remaining, including a crucial clash on Saturday in Victoria with a loss virtually eliminating Langley from playoff contention.

With such high stakes in their next game, Oakes admitted the Thunder may have lost some of their focus against a Burnaby team which has just two wins and one tie in 18 games. The tie, however, did come against Langley in the teams’ previous meeting.

“We blocked (the Victoria game) out in the first two period, but then we came out in the third period a little slow,” he said.

The opening 20 minutes were all Langley as they scored four times while Torin Vanrheenen stopped every shot fired his way. The Lakers did manage a pair of goals in the second period, but the Thunder countered with three of their own to extend the lead to five. Burnaby managed the only two goals of the final frame.

Langley’s offence was rounded out by goals from Aiden Murphy and Dylan McIntosh.

But the offence of the absence over the final 20 minutes was not because of a lack of effort on the Thunder side as they had plenty of Grade ‘A’ scoring chances. Lakers goaltender Matteo Tack was up to the challenge, however. Tack came up with 56 saves for the game as his team was outshot 63-39.

The lack of goal scoring does continue a troubling trend for Langley as the team has only reached double digits once in their past seven games, averaging just over eight goals per game over that stretch.

Oakes knows the goal-scoring struggles are a problem for the team, himself included.

“This is my first hat trick of the year, I am used to scoring a lot more,” he said. “We have a lot of talent on this team. We need a lot more ball movement and (more in the) transition game.”

He also knows the team is too talented not to be in the playoffs. But they have been plagued by inconsistency, failing to string together consecutive victories over their last seven games.

Following Saturday’s showdown in Victoria, the Thunder close out the regular season with three more road games. On Tuesday (July 3), they are in New Westminster before back-to-back games Friday (July 6) in Port Coquitlam and Saturday (July 7) in Ladner.

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For more information:

Gary Ahuja, Langley Events Centre, 604.613.5242 (cell), 604.455.8830 (office) or email.