Lakers Avoid Sweep

Submitted by League Reporter, Jen Mutas

After being outscored 24-16 in the first two games of the second round series versus Coquitlam, Burnaby had to throw all they could at the regular season league champion Adanacs Wednesday night to evade having their season end on the dreaded 'sweep'.

In game two the Lakers came out to a sluggish start in the first period, heading to the second down by five goals which seemed to carry on for the rest of the game resulting in their second loss of the series. Game three would be a different beast for Burnaby who not only went to the break up three goals on the A's, but were working seamlessly as a team and looked to have the drive to finally take a game off the Adanacs. Jackson Decker would put two goals past Dan Lewis in the first, but it was Mitch Dibblee's goal with five minutes to go in the period that got the crowd talking. Jaxson Lee spotted Dibblee streaking down the right side of the floor and just when you thought he went too far and ran out of goal room, he extended back and switched from right to left to put the ball past Lewis stick-side. If there was a BCJALL play of the day, this would have been it.

Coquitlam is known in the league for their tight defensive play and solid goaltending but after the first twenty minutes there was no one more frustrated with their play than the A's themselves. Down three goals and getting called for a holding penalty to start the second, Trevor Moore would get a feed from his Robert Morris teammate to throw a short handed goal past Ray Hodgkinson to hopefully jumpstart his team. Burnaby would have the answer to that short handed goal as Decker, Dibblee, and Riley Loewen countered with four goals of their own to keep the distance between the A's and a lead. However in the second half of the middle period there would be a momentum shift in the game as the Adanacs prioritized for four goals of their own. Robert Church rifled a shot from the top of the shooting circle on the power play, and Moore scored again- this time laying out Cam Appels who had the ball but didn't see him coming which gave Moore all day to cut in and pump fake on Hodgkinson. The second would end with two players trying to give their teams the extra push for the third period as Brandon Turner and Nick Benevoli threw down with just half a minute to go. After getting the gear out of the way the two landed a few punches but the nod went to Turner and the A's went into the third back in it, down by just two goals.

Just as he did in the second, Moore would be the jumpstart to the final period scoring his third of the night and getting the A's to within one. After more than twenty minutes without a goal and a sluggish start to the third, Burnaby finally got back on the board with a goal from Jaxson Lee, followed shortly by Loewen. Coquitlam started pulling goalie Chris Seidel quite early resulting in two goals from Church and Ben McIntosh, but Shaun Dhaliwal decided his five assists on the night for Burnaby would be coupled nicely with a pair of goals. Dhaliwal scored just eight seconds after Loewen did, and followed up with an empty netter to end the period. 13-10 was the final score from Poirer Arena, an impressive win from the Lakers to make the second round series worth watching.

Burnaby played with a number of positives in game three; they had the drive to win for the full sixty minutes, a classic cliché for sports but everyone knows the result. Even when they didn't score for almost a full period of play, the killed a couple of penalties, and even managed a good looking short handed opportunity that was waved off for crease play. Goaltending from Hodgkinson was consistent tonight, just like the rest of the Laker roster. He didn't make huge spectacular saves because he didn't have to, he just stopped the ball at the right times which is exactly what his team needed him to do. Dhaliwal, Decker, and Loewen scoring seven points a piece ensured the win for Burnaby, and most impressively was the improvement on defense versus a team who can bury opponents with their goal scoring. Coming down to it, the winning drive from the Adanacs was patchy, sometimes they looked like they were going to take over the game, only to let Burnaby shift gears and take control again. Dan Lewis had a rough start which seemed to stay with him until he pulled himself in the second, something that will have to be rectified for game four which goes down this Sunday at 7:00PM.