Timbermen hand Thunder second-straight loss

Drew Kask and the Langley Thunder offence were held largely in check on Sunday afternoon at Langley Events Centre by the visiting Nanaimo Timbermen, who scored the 10-4 victory in BC Junior A Lacrosse League action. Gary Ahuja Langley Events Centre photos

Make it two losses in a row for the Langley Thunder following a five-game win streak to open the season.

The Thunder fell behind 5-2 after 20 minutes on Sunday afternoon at Langley Events Centre and could never recover, losing 10-4 to the Nanaimo Timbermen in BC Junior A Lacrosse League action.

The defeat tightens up the standings as Langley and Victoria sit at 5-2 while Nanaimo and Coquitlam – who beat the Thunder on June 2 – are right behind at 4-2.

“You have two teams that are nipping at our heels, and we lose to them back-to-back. That’s a tough week to end with, but it is what it is. Now we just have to learn from that,” said Langley coach Adam Smith.

“Nanaimo did a really good job today of keeping us on the outside and not letting us crash in the middle; and when we did, we weren’t seeing the passes and they had good shooters who scored good goals and that combination went in their favour.”

The teams traded goals to open the game before the Timbermen scored four of the next five to lead 5-2 following 20 minutes. Nanaimo tallied the only two goals of the middle period and then outscored Langley 3-2 in the final frame.

Drew Kask (one goal, two assists), Kyle Brunsch (one goal, one assist), Ben Gagnon (one goal, one assist) and Matt Abbott (one goal) provided the Thunder offence with Brayden Wandler stopping 34 of 44 shots.

At the other end of the floor, Justin Geddie was nearly unbeatable, finishing with a .925 save percentage as he stopped 49 of 53 shots. Ryan Sheridan (three goals, one assist), Jacob Dunbar (two goals, two assists) and Arthur Miller (two goals, one assist) led the Timbermen attack.

“We fought hard and played three periods, but it just wasn’t our day tonight,” said Abbott. “Nanaimo executed and did what they needed to do to beat us today.”

One difference in the last two games has been the fact the Thunder have been facing multi-goal deficits, something they did not encounter too often in their five-game winning streak to start the season.

“We haven’t really been down too much this season, so these last couple of games have been a lot of adversity for us to face,” Abbott said. “It is a different experience. Especially for these young guys, getting that experience of playing down and then working our way back out of that hole is something that we are working on. As long as we take this game as a learning game, we shouldn’t have any problems.”

The Thunder now have 10 days off before their next game on June 15 in Burnaby against the Lakers and it kicks off a stretch of five games in nine days. The team’s next home game at Langley Events Centre is June 16 (7:30pm) vs. the Port Coquitlam Saints

“We have teams that are hungry and nipping at our heels. We just need to clean up the little things that have been killing us,” Abbott said. “Just that little fundamental stuff that we practice every week and working on our stick skills. I don’t think there is anything crazy we need to change; it is just executing at this point.”

Langley Thunder's Curtis Goode takes down Nanaimo Timbermen's Connor Dewit behind the Langley goal.

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