It was a night when the Nanaimo Timbermen shouldn’t have had to settle for a tie.
The Coastal Windows Timbermen senior A lacrosse team played the Burnaby Lakers to an 11-11 draw on Sunday at Frank Crane Arena.
Nanaimo did well to come back and tie the score in regulation after a slow first period. But with 30 seconds left in overtime, with an 11-10 lead and the ball on their stick, all the T-men needed to do was run out the clock. They couldn’t.
The Lakers deposited the ball in the top corner of the net with 15 seconds left.
“I wasn’t happy with the play at all,” said Art Webster, T-men coach. “We didn’t run the play that we wanted to run and they ended up doubling us and getting the ball back,”
Different voices calling out different instructions might have caused the mix-up.
“They have to understand that I’m running the bench and they’re not running the bench,” Webster said.
Leading up to those last 30 seconds, the Timbermen showed some moxie. Down 3-1 after the first period, the offence got moving, got inside and started to get some goals.
“We worked so hard to get back into the game that there are definitely positives out of it,” said Scott Ranger, team captain. “The big negative is that we gave up the lead again.”
Lewis Ratcliff scored four goals and added two assists, and Ranger also tallied a hat trick. Patrick Smith got the game-tying goal in the third period on a shot from outside that snuck past the Lakers’ goalie, five-hole. In overtime Dylan Benard transitioned the ball up the floor and fired in the potential game-winner while being checked by two Lakers defenders. Mat MacLeod had a goal and three helpers and Cayle Ratcliff was Nanaimo's other scorer. Joel Henry dished four assists.
Matt King got the start in the crease but sustained an injury and was relieved by Ray Hodgkinson, who ended up as the goalie of record in the tie.
LACROSSE TALK … The Timbermen (2-3-2) play a rematch against the Lakers (3-5-1) on Friday (June 24) on the Lower Mainland, then return home to take on the league-leading New Westminster Salmonbellies (5-1-1) on Sunday at 7 p.m. at Frank Crane Arena.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com