The senior B Nanaimo Timbermen will get a chance to play for a championship.
The city’s West Coast Senior Lacrosse Association club won its semifinal playoff series, defeating the Ladner Pioneers 11-9 in overtime Wednesday in Delta to take the best-of-five, three games to one.
“It’s tough playing back-to-back, definitely, and heading out on the road after an emotional win, the boys responded really well,” said Mike Maughan, the team’s coach.
Nanaimo got a fast start, building a 5-1 lead after one period and extending it to as much as 7-2 before Ladner gained momentum.
“They’re a strong team, they battled strong and they pressed really hard and if not for [goalie Nick Patterson], they might have come all the way back,” said Maughan. “But we kind of regrouped once they tied it up and we managed to get it to overtime and we found the energy we needed in the extra period.”
Andrew Miller scored the game-winner and had a couple of pretty goals on the night, and Simon Stocks contributed offensively with two breakaway goals. Complete statistics weren’t available at press time.
Maughan said the series win is meaningful to the Timbermen. The team’s thoughts have been with player-manager Shawn Swanson, who suffered a serious neck injury in Game 2 in Ladner and was still awaiting surgery as of Wednesday night.
“We definitely had some extra incentive to pull it out for him and the guys carried that inspiration with them,” Maughan said.
Nanaimo advances to play the top-seeded Langley Warriors in a best-of-five series for the WCSLA championship. Scheduling hasn’t been confirmed, but the series won’t start until next week and probably not until Aug. 6.
“Overall, we’re glad to have the time off,” said Maughan. “There’s definitely some banged-up bodies. Some guys even came to me and said they probably wouldn’t play, but seeing what Shawn’s been through, they kind of sucked it up.”
sports@nanaimobulletin.com