T-Men Crush Poco Hopes

Submitted by League Reporter, Jen Mutas

Not even twenty four hours before Saturday's game against Nanaimo, the Saints managed to edge against the Islanders to keep their playoff hopes alive in the final weekend of the regular season. In order to pass the Timbermen in the standings, the Saints would have to pull out another tough win tonight against Nanaimo, and hope the T-Men would drop their game versus Burnaby on Sunday.

Still riding high from their Friday night win, Poco was hoping to catch Nanaimo off their game since they hadn't played in five days; but it appeared the rest had done the T-Men good as they jumped on the scoresheet first with Colton Clark getting the ball past starting goaltender Mike Lowe. Not to be outdone for their last game of the season, Jordan Flaman would rush the Nanaimo zone while they were announcing their goal and put one in of his own. After some penalty trouble there would be a couple more goals for each team; Kyle Hofer and Cody Bremner scoring for Nanaimo, and for Poco Matt Wiebe would throw in two to go along with another from Flaman, and one from overtime hero Darcy Cummings. By the end of the first it looked like Poco fans were in for another tight game to test their nerves.

In the second the Saints would ease up on the gas a little bit, but still get two goals from Scott Davidson, and one from Brandon Bortignon. Nanaimo would get their legs in the middle frame and catch up to Poco getting two power play goals from Bremner, and three others at even strength. Before you knew it twenty minutes had passed, and the game was heading into the third period tied at eight.

Expecting Poco to come out of the gates hard to start the third, it was Nanaimo who had the jumpstart with one of the best goals I have seen this year. Jon Diplock was rushing the Poco net on the first play of the period, and while he was getting checked down hard he managed to fake out Lowe and release a 'crippler'(the guy sitting in front of me kindly referenced the 'crippler' as when you lead the goalie on for a regular shot, and at the last minute draw your shooting hand back over your other arm, promptly putting the goalie in an awkward position to make the save-thus crippling him. Many thanks for the explanation!) After that goal Poco would answer back with another from Flaman as he rifled one from the shooting circle to beat Bannister, and a power play goal from Ryan Kwasnica to pull within one, but another goal from Bremner, and a final one from Steve Higgs, would give Nanaimo the one-goal edge they needed to head home for their final regular season game with two points in tow.

As was the case with so many games in the last couple of weeks, tonight's match easily came down to goaltending. Friday night's game was all about Mike Lowe's performance, and although Lowe had a pretty good game to follow up on Saturday, it was Nanaimo's Scott Bannister who would shut the door and play tremendously, to help his team earn the win with thirty three quality saves. Many visibly upset Poco players left the floor after the game with heavy heads, but really shouldn't be unhappy with their efforts in the last couple of weeks. Dealing with a coaching change in the middle of the season may have had some lasting effect on the team, but they still managed to put on a great run in the hunt for a playoff spot with their new coach Rick Mang. Next season will be a whole new ball game for the Saints, but it still doesn't make the end of this one any easier to stomach.

Elsewhere in the BCJALL tonight, Coquitlam beat Delta by a score of 14-4. In that game Robert Church scored three goals and five assists to bring his point total to 100 so far this year, with one game to go on Sunday versus Victoria.