Thunder rally late but can't complete comeback

Langley's Braiden Struss battles through a check from his New Westminster Salmonbellies opponent during BC Junior A Lacrosse League action at Langley Events Centre on May 18. Ryan Molag LEC photo

The positive was they held their opponent to four goals and rallied back in the third period to tie the score with 39 seconds to play. The negative? The fourth goal allowed came with just 24 seconds to play and their offence managed a meager three goals.

Combining that all together, and the Langley Thunder came out on the wrong end of a 4-3 final score to the visiting New Westminster Salmonbellies on Thursday night at Langley Events Centre in BC Junior A Lacrosse League action.

New Westminster evened their record to 2-2 while the Thunder lost a third-straight game to fall to 1-4.

Through the game’s first 52 minutes, the Salmonbellies held a slim 2-0 lead thanks to a pair of goals from Lukas Nielsen 1:40 apart in the opening four minutes of the contest. Colten Colmorgen gave the home side life as he finally beat ‘Bellies goalie Ryan Downie with 7:06 to play. Nolan Rigazzi restored the two-goal lead less than a minute later, but the Thunder’s Jayme Brain made it 3-2 with 2:28 to play and Colmorgen potted his second to level the score at 3 with 39 seconds to play.

Alas, the Langley comeback story was not to be written as Wren Glanville struck just 15 seconds later for the winning goal.

While the result was not what they had wanted, there were positives.

“We were happy with the defence: it was something we focused on in practice and we came out and executed that, so we were definitely happy with that,” said Thunder coach Adam Smith. “And the level of compete in our guys was good, so we have to take that as a positive.”

Goaltender Brayden Wandler was another bright spot as he finished with a .925 save percentage, making 49 saves (including 38 in the first 40 minutes) as his team was outshot 53-36 in the game.

But the problem remains goal scoring as the Thunder remain without several returning players who are still away at school, as well as the team’s leading goal scorer in Declan Fitzpatrick (7 goals in 2 games) who remains out with injury.

All three goals in Thursday’s loss came from players making their debuts with the team.

“We have two guys up front who have never been out to a practice with us before. Four out of the 7 are call-ups … we are asking them to do things they have never done before,” Smith said about the plight of his short-handed forward crew.

The team does not have much time to rest as it faces a busy weekend with a road game in Ladner on Saturday (May 20, 7:00pm) before a home date on Sunday afternoon (May 21, 3:30pm) at Langley Events Centre against the Nanaimo Timbermen to wrap up three games in a 72-hour span.

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