Battle of the Ages

Submitted by League Reporter, Jen Mutas

For those who say ‘age is just a number’, tell that to the Port Coquitlam Saints who have sixteen players graduating from the team at the end of the 2010 season; at the other end of the spectrum the Langley Thunder have just three members of their squad in their final year of Junior ‘A’. Friday night in Poco the two teams would face off in a battle of the ages to see if older is necessarily wiser, at least in a lacrosse game anyways.

Both teams came into the match riding losing streaks; the Saints last win was back on May 22nd versus Nanaimo but since their 7-7 tie against the Adanacs at the beginning of June, Poco had lost six in a row which placed them in seventh spot in the BCJALL. After losing to Delta by sixteen goals on June 10th, the Thunder rebounded well with a win against Victoria on June 13th but had dropped their following three games, albeit against highly ranked teams such as New West, Coquitlam, and Burnaby (OT).

The first period was played with a fairly safe demeanour by both sides, but back to back delay of game penalties against Langley would give the Saints a chance to work out their effective power play. Two goals from Chris Jones and a PP marker from Trevor Evans would get the ball rolling for the Saints, but Langley was right on their heels with two goals from Max Weselowski. After twenty minutes the Saints would have a slim one goal lead to work with, but it looked to be anyone’s game after the first period.

After letting the Saints throw four more past him in the second for a total of eight goals against, Graham Chandler would be relieved by Keenan Lambright with a couple of minutes left in the second period. At the other end of the floor, the reason the Saints were able to break out and extend their lead was largely in part to the spectacular play of Carson Michaud who saw 21 of Langley’s 40 total shots in the second period alone, and also managed get on the scoresheet with an assist on one of Darcy Cummings’ goals. Confidence from Michaud spread easily from the defense forward, and the Saints made the most of testing Langley’s new goaltender for the rest of the game.

At one point in the third a power play goal from Nick Stone would get the Thunder within one goal of the Saints with about eight minutes to work with, but two quick goals from Jimmy Delaney would give Poco back the cushion. Having a checking from behind penalty against the Saints washed out by a high-sticking call against Langley, the teams would play four on four for the last minute of the game. It was Poco who would catch the Thunder with Lambright out for the extra attacker, and Jesse Rougeau held back on the initial run at the empty net to the point where it looked like he was looking for someone else to dish it off to, and once the Langley defender caught up with him he sauntered towards the net and threw the ball into the empty net.

In addition to his hat trick for the Thunder, Weselowski dominated the faceoff circle winning 15 and losing just 9. As for the Saints, smart penalty killing and quick feet resulted in a four point night (2 goals, 2 assists) for Delaney who really stood out for the yellow and black tonight.

Final score from the Poco Rec Center was 12-8 for the Saints, proving the experience that comes with age pays off when put to good use. The win also gives Poco their third win of the season with three games remaining, and also the 2-1 nod in the season series against Langley.