The Nanaimo DBL Timbermen extended their season to overtime, but no further.
The senior B lacrosse team lost 8-5 to the Tri-City Bandits on Wednesday night at Frank Crane Arena. The defeat eliminated the T-men from the West Coast Senior Lacrosse Association playoffs, while the Bandits advanced to the finals by winning the best-of-three series two games to none.
Goals were tough to come by for both teams, as the visitors led 4-2 going into the third period. It was a one-goal game for much of the exciting third period, and Joey Fendick’s tying goal forced the 10-minute OT frame.
In overtime, Nanaimo hit five posts in the first five minutes, while Tri-City was able to find the back of the net at the other end of the floor.
“We battled hard to come back at the end there and they just managed to pull it out in overtime,” said Mike Maughan, coach of the DBL Timbermen. “We hit a couple posts, they hit a couple posts so it really could have gone either way … It was a really tight game between two really good teams.”
Even down two goals, then three goals in overtime, the Timbermen kept playing hard, said the coach.
Shawn Swanson, T-men player and general manager, said the teams were closely matched but the defending-champion Bandits were more experienced.
“They’ve got a team that’s been here before, knows how to slow the game down and pick away at a team,” he said.
Ryan Clark led Nanaimo with two goals and Diplock and Russell Thomas also scored leading up to Fendick’s tying marker.
Ray Hodgkinson went the distance in goal, making 51 saves.
Overall, the DBL men will take mixed emotions into the off-season after a year that saw them finish in the top half of the league and win one playoff series.
“I felt we were capable of winning the whole thing, but we lost to a really strong team so we don’t have anything to feel too bad about,” said Maughan.
The GM said there were good and bad stretches during the 2012 season, but he likes the core of the team and hopes to keep it together moving forward.
“It’s just a matter of young kids having to be in this situation and taking the positive and fixing the negative,” he said.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com