Trigger Happy

Submitted by League Reporter, Jen Mutas

Coming off a tight one-goal loss against the undefeated Salmonbellies on Thursday night, the Timbermen had two days to rest up for their second tough opponent of the week as they came over to the mainland to take on the Coquitlam Adanacs. In the game versus New West it was Nanaimo’s goaltending, smart defense, and three four short-handed goals that made the ‘Bellies work extra hard for their win; if the T-Men wanted to get any points out of Coquitlam they would have to put forth the same kind of performance against the A’s, who were riding a four game winning streak.

The last time the A’s and the T-Men faced one another it was each teams’ first game of the 2010 season and it ended in a 12-11 overtime loss, with Ryan Johnson scoring the winning goal with just half a minute left in the game. Twelve games later in the season the rosters have filled out for both teams, but the first period started the way the last game ended off. After four break-aways and hitting a couple of posts, Alberta import Simon Giourmetakis put two goals in the back of the net for Coquitlam; but with each goal scored by the A’s the Timbermen would answer. One goal from Cody Bremner on a delayed penalty and the other on the power play from Steve Higgs left the game at a tie going into the break, and perhaps a sign that penalty’s might be the key for Nanaimo to crack Coquitlam.

A back-checking penalty called against Nanaimo in the last minute of the first gave the A’s a chance to break out with fresh legs in the second, but Nanaimo’s defense did a good job of stopping play and managed to gain possession for over half of the four minutes and ultimately killing what could have been a game changing penalty. That being said, under a minute after the Timbermen had killed the penalty their captain Cody Bremner was called for high sticking, and on that power-play the A’s would make no mistake on the opportunity. From then on the momentum shift in Coquitlam’s favour was hard to control for Nanaimo and at the end of the second they found themselves down 6-3.

The A’s would continue much of the same for the final period including three goals at even strength, and one each on the power play and short-handed. Colton Clark scored the last three Timbermen goals for a natural hat trick, but the game was won in the second period and the final score would be 11-5 for the Coquitlam.

The biggest differential between these two teams in the game explains why the score ended up the way it did. Coquitlam hammered sixty shots on Zack Boychuk tonight; combine that with the game versus New West and Boychuk has seen 114 shots in just under two games working out to be almost a shot a minute. (Scott Bannister ended out the last minutes of the third period in the game versus Coquitlam) At the other end of the floor Chris Seidel wasn’t tested much as he only saw 27 shots, making a difference of 35. Issac Haack was over fifty percent in the faceoff circle with 10 wins and 4 losses so the opportunities were there for the Timbermen they just were tough to execute against the A’s, who with the win slip into first place, one point ahead of New Westminster who tied with Burnaby on Sunday night.