GAME OF THE WEEK: Timbermen, Saints do battle on May Long

It's May long weekend, but the lacrosse hasn't stopped. 

Sunday's match-up pits a pair of up-and-coming teams who have used a recent hot streak to stake their claim in the burgeoning BCJALL playoff race. Yes, we can talk about the playoffs already. Nanaimo will be in tough considering they just played a competitive Burnaby team at home the day before, and will be forced to cross over to the Mainland for an early afternoon game against Port Coquitlam.

These two teams only played two of their three scheduled games last season as Port Coquitlam was forced to forfeit two games against Nanaimo. 

LAST YEAR'S HEAD-TO-HEAD

May 8, 2016 - 1-0 Timbermen (Saints Forfeit)

May 28, 2016 - 11-7 Saints (Saints Forfeit - Ineligible Player)

July 3, 2016 - 11-3 Saints 

GAME DETAILS

2:00 PM, Port Coquitlam Sports Complex

STREAMING - PLAYFULLSCREEN

The kids are alright

Nanaimo has some very intriguing and bright young prospects coming through their feeder system. The T-Men's Intermediate A has gotten off to a wicked start and features three of the top five scorers in the league in Adam Fulton (27G, 18A in 6 GP), Colton Lidstone (18G, 27A in 6 GP) and Will Johansen (12G, 21A in 6 GP). 

With the only game of the T-Men's weekend being at home on Saturday against the Okanagan Wild, you could see one, two, or maybe all three make the trip over with the Junior club. They provide that extra bite on offence, and give the T-Men some secondary scoring they still need to polish off at this point of the year. 

Although with some time, guys like Tyson Black and Pascal Coombs will probably be good bets to become great players for Nanaimo, too.

Putting together some momentum

After starting the season missing a handful of key players, the Saints look to finally be working their way into a groove with new head coach Kelly Scott at the helm.

A win against Nanaimo would still mean the team sits at 2-5, which is obviously not where they wanted to be. But given they're now at full-strength, the chance to reel off a few wins in a row will shoot them up the standings and give them some cushion from being one of the bottom teams. It'll be interesting to see who plays in goal after Karter Williams has looked good in the 164 minutes he's played in so far this season.

He's stopped 77 per cent of opposition shots and has a record of 1-2. 

PREDICTION - The Timbermen get close throughout the game, but never enough to pull ahead, and lose a tight one 13-10.