The Nanaimo DBL Timbermen got their playoff run off to an encouraging start.
The city's West Coast Senior Lacrosse Association team defeated the Royal City Capitals 10-8 in New Westminster on Monday night to take a one-game-to-none lead in the best-of-three series.
The senior B Timbermen battled through a close game and put themselves in position to win despite the Capitals' success on special teams. With just over two minutes to go in Monday's game, the T-men killed off a power play and Shane Chalker scored a transition goal that ended up being the game-winner.
"In general, our team played very composed even though the penalty minutes might not show that," said Roger Dubyna, coach of the team. "When the game got tight near the end with the seconds starting to tick down, I thought our guys stayed within the system, kept their composure and kept working the whole time."
The coach said the contest was a spirited affair starting right from the pre-game warmup. One of the Capitals players went to retrieve a ball from the Timbermen goal and bumped into T-men goalie Danny Walters.
"Danny's not going to put up with that, so Danny hacked him pretty good from what I gather," Dubyna said.
A fight was averted and the teams got down to playing lacrosse, but didn't get much of a chance to play five-on-five as the T-men were handed a series of penalties.
"I thought their power play played well; our short man needs some work," Dubyna said.
He did like the glimpses of even-strength play that he saw, and suggested that chemistry is building.
"The more games we play, the more all our guys are getting in tune with each other," said the coach.
Shawn Swanson got the game ball, scoring a hat trick, and Aaron Vanderhorst tallied three goals and three assists. Kyle Noble had two goals and Luke MacNeil had a goal and two helpers. Jordan Jarvis had three assists and Walters had two.
GAME ON … The DBL Timbermen have home-floor advantage for the series, so both Game 2 and Game 3, if necessary, will be played at Frank Crane Arena this week. Game 2 is Wednesday (July 20) at 7 p.m. and Game 3 would be Saturday in another 7 p.m. start.
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