The Burnaby Lakers made it two wins in a row Saturday night, beating the Nanaimo Timbermen 9-7 one night after stunning the first-place Victoria Shamrocks in overtime. The win improves the Lakers to 3-7 on the season, as they leapfrog the Langley Thunder and out of the WLA basement. Nanaimo falls to 5-5 with the loss, but remain in the fourth and final playoff spot as the season reaches its midpoint. The season series between Burnaby and Nanaimo stands at one game apiece; the Lakers and Timbermen meet once more on Friday July 17 at Bill Copeland Arena.
Lakers lead comfortably after first two periods as Favaro nets hat trick
The Lakers got on the board first when Andrew Cowan scored at 8:02. Joel McCormick, who scored two late goals to force overtime against Victoria the night before, found the back of the net at 14:34 for a 2-0 lead. Noah Manning (17:44) cut the lead in half for Nanaimo, but a late goal from Ryan Favaro (19:31 shorthanded) gave Burnaby a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes of play. Tysen Fontenia (8:45 second period) again cut the lead to one, but back-to-back goals from Favaro (10:11; 17:17 power play) and another power play goal from Jake Young (17:46) put the Lakers up 6-2 going into the final period.
Nanaimo rallies, but cannot equalize as Lakers win second straight
Ethan M’Lot started the third period scoring a third straight power play goal (8:12) to make it a 7-2 game. Brent Mitchell broke the run for the Timbermen at 11:20, but Finn Halladay scored yet another power play goal (12:59) to push the lead back to five, 8-3. However, Nanaimo began mounting a comeback, starting with back-to-back goals from Andrew Bowman (15:38; 16:25). Six seconds later, Burnaby faceoff man Tyson Johnson instigated a fight, racking up a whopping 40 minutes in penalties. Subsequent goals form Jeremy Wudrick (17:46) and Bowman (18:08) pulled Nanaimo within one, 8-7. But the Lakers got an insurance goal from Sam Trumble with just 28 seconds left in regulation to close out the win.
Favaro (3g, 1a) earned 1st Star of the Game, and M’Lot (1g, 3a) 3rd Star for the Lakers. Bowman (3g, 1a) took 2nd Star honors for the Timbermen. The Lakers won despite being outshot 57-40 and winning just 6 of 19 faceoffs on the night. Marc Rippberger turned aside 50 shots in the win, while Colby Bowman made 31 saves in the loss. The Lakers look to make it three wins in a row when they host Langley on Tuesday before hosting Maple ridge on Friday. Nanaimo is off until next Saturday, when they travel to Coquitlam to face the Adanacs, who sit a half-game ahead of them in the standings.
