All Tied Up

Submitted by League Reporter, Jen Mutas

Competitive games of any kind always seem to have a little extra intentions riding on the results, and Fridays game between the Port Coquitlam Saints and Burnaby Lakers was no different. A win by the Lakers would see them take over first spot in the league standings, and a Saints win would keep ensure that spots five through seven would all sit with four points.

The Lakers came out with determination and Mack Davis would open scoring by slipping through the Poco defense for an unassisted goal, and be followed up by two more Burnaby goals to jump ahead. Getting their legs going after some penalties the Saints would make their comeback halfway through the first tying it up at three goals, including two back-to-back power play goals from Chris Jones with assists from Trevor Evans and Darcy Cummings.

The Lakers managed another unassisted goal at the end of the first period for a one goal lead heading into the break, and in the second period it was back and forth. As soon as one team would score the other would counter right away, resulting in very entertaining end-to-end play. With his two unassisted goals in the second Lee would complete his hat trick for Burnaby, and again the Lakers would head to the break with a one goal lead.

Both teams had been fairly even in all areas up until the third, and that’s when Poco exploded with shots on net, outshooting the Lakers 16-6 in the final frame. After an already impressive performance in the first two periods Laker goalie Patrick Baliss proved his worth in spades in the third, only letting two goals past him in the flurry of Poco shots. Clay Collison would be the lone scorer in the final period for Burnaby, resulting in a tie and sending the game to a ten minute overtime period.

Two minutes in to OT Jones would finish up his hat trick as the Saints cycled the ball well in the Laker zone and caught the defense at a moment of weakness. The referees had let a lot of stuff go in the third and overtime period so far, but decided to call a holding penalty against Laker Brent Laurita with just four minutes remaining. The Poco bench then called a goalie change to drum up some time to get their power play in order, but the Lakers managed to not only kill it off, but also throw in the tying goal from Josh Simons about twenty seconds after the penalty expired. For the Saints it wasn’t for a lack of trying, at the end of the game their shots on net tallied at 52, showing just how hard Baliss worked between the iron for the Burnaby.

With the tie on Friday night the Lakers move one point ahead of Nanaimo for first place overall with nine points, and have a chance to build on their lead when they host the Langley Thunder at Bill Copeland Arena on Sunday night at 7:00PM.