The Nanaimo Timbermen were defeated as the offence had an off-night.
The senior A T-men lost 9-4 to the New Westminster Salmonbellies on Saturday at Frank Crane Arena.
Kaleb Toth, Nanaimo coach, said he thought the defence played well but couldn’t say the same for the offence.
“We didn’t do the little things,” he said. “We weren’t getting to the middle of the floor enough and when we were, we weren’t getting the ball. Guys weren’t hustling off, they weren’t cutting off [New West’s] transition. It was a tough game for the offence.”
He said the Salmonbellies’ defence pressured his guys, but said the T-men should have been prepared to handle that. Instead, it led to shot-clock-management problems. Toth said the way to combat that is by hustling on and off the floor in transition, and then, on offensive possessions, “cutting to the middle right away, making their defence check them and shrink. We were just jogging out there and they just spread us out and we didn’t attack right away.”
A lot of the mistakes, the coach said, just come down to focus. Toth said this loss to the Salmonbellies was a better game for his team than the season opener on the Lower Mainland, when New West won 12-7.
Nanaimo was coming off an 11-9 win over the Langley Thunder on Wednesday, and while Toth said Saturday’s loss was a little bit of a step back, he said the coaching staff isn’t too concerned.
“We know the potential and we know where this team can go,” he said. “We’ve just got to try to direct them and they have to want to get to that direction.”
On Saturday, Colton Clark led Nanaimo with two goals and Jake Cullen and Tyson Roe also scored. Mike DeGirolamo made 36 saves.
In Wednesday’s win, Clark had a hat trick, Chase Fraser scored a pair and Jordan Cunningham had a goal and five assists. Taylor Stuart, Nate Wade, Jake Emms, Brody Eastwood and Dan Michel were other scorers and DeGirolamo made 42 saves for the ‘W’ in that one.
GAME ON … The senior A T-men have two home games this coming weekend as they host the Maple Ridge Burrards on Friday (June 16) at 7 p.m. at Frank Crane Arena and then take on the Victoria Shamrocks on Sunday, also a 7 p.m. faceoff at Frank Crane.
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