The senior B Nanaimo Timbermen got to start playoffs on their home floor and took full advantage.
Nanaimo’s West Coast Senior Lacrosse Association club handled the Victoria Wolves 15-8 in Game 1 of a first-round best-of-three series on Wednesday night at Frank Crane Arena.
The T-men built an 8-1 lead, survived a stretch in which the Wolves got it to 8-5, and Nanaimo ensured the game stayed well in hand in the third.
“We’ve really amped it up, we’ve picked up our game and that’s what we wanted coming into playoffs and it showed right now that we’re playoff ready,” said Jon Diplock, Timbermen captain.
Mike Maughan, the team’s coach, said guys showed they were ready to play.
“We came out strong in that first period, kind of took control of the game and from there we battled some of the ebbs and flows,” he said.
There were a lot of penalties and plenty of physicality during the second half of the game. Maughan said with the rivals battling each other hard, it was understandable that tempers flared with the score so one-sided. Diplock said his team can handle that type of game when it comes.
“We’re all tough guys and we all love each other, so it’s going to be a team effort,” he said. “If one guy’s in there, then we’re all in there. We’re ready for anything. Each guy can hold their own so if we’ve got five guys out there then we’re pretty confident with whatever rough stuff comes.”
A lot of Timbermen players had big nights offensively. Diplock scored a goal and added seven assists, Corey Shires had a hat trick and two assists and Jake Mickelson also had a hat trick. Adam Backular-Evans had two and two, Andrew Miller had a goal and five assists, Travis Mickelson scored and added three helpers and Ryan Taylor tallied twice. Graham Palmer was Nanaimo’s other scorer and Nick Patterson tended goal.
The Wolves are the higher-seeded team, but chose to give up home-floor advantage for Game 1 in order to get Game 2 on Friday in Victoria.
GAME ON … Game 2 is a 7:30 p.m. start time at the Q Centre and Game 3 is Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Q Centre.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com