The Victoria Shamrocks found a lot of holes in the Nanaimo Timbermen’s game.
The Coastal Windows Timbermen were defeated 15-10 on Friday in Victoria.
T-men star Scott Ranger scored seven goals, but there were few other bright spots for the visitors.
“Not to blame goalies or not to blame offence, but we just couldn’t get the plays we needed when we needed them,” said the Nanaimo captain. “We’d get a couple goals and then they’d get a soft goal, or they’d get one or two goals and then we’d throw the ball away on offence. A lot of mental mistakes, but the good thing is we can clean it up real quick.”
The Timbermen scored the first goal of the game 12 seconds into the first period, but couldn’t sustain pressure.
“We never once got the momentum,” said Art Webster, T-men coach. “We’d score a goal, I thought we were coming back, and then bang, they’d bang in another one.”
Webster didn’t think either of his goalies were seeing the ball well.
“I had to yank ’em both … and that’s not acceptable,” the coach said.
Other than Ranger’s seven-goal effort, other Nanaimo scorers were Cayle Ratcliff, Pat Smith and Cory Conway.
Ranger raised his league-leading total to 20. No other player in the league is in double-digits in that category.
Ranger’s seventh goal came on a penalty shot.
“I think I’m 0-for-4 on penalty shots up until tonight, so it was nice to bury that one,” he said. “I was thinking about it the whole way down.”
Webster said he told the Timbermen in the dressing room after Friday’s game that he needs more guys to play with Ranger’s effort.
“Scotty played at the top of his game like he does every single night,” said the coach.
At the other end of the arena, Shamrocks coach Bob Heyes, a former Timbermen goalie, thought his team did a good job in all areas except shutting down Ranger.
“Our offence finally clicked, goaltending came up with key saves. Defensively our transition game was awesome – it kept them off of their game a little bit,” said Heyes.
GAME ON … The senior A Timbermen play Sunday (June 10) against the Burnaby Lakers at 7 p.m. at Frank Crane Arena.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com