An undisciplined showing may have cost the Burnaby Lakers its first win of the Western Lacrosse Association season.
The senior A Lakers needlessly got themselves on the wrong side of the referees on at least three occasions, which compacted the final point spread in a 12-8 loss to the much improved Maple Ridge Burrards at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre on Friday.
Maple Ridge's Brandon Bertoia capitalized on the first two of the team's four power-play goals less than a minute apart to put the Burrards into the lead for good close to midway through the opening period.
Bertoia's pair sparked a four-goal-in-two-minute surge that ultimately Burnaby was unable to rally back from.
A further foolish infraction near the end of the opening period was quickly answered on the man-up by Maple Ridge star righthander Curtis Dickson, who led all scorers with six goals and three assists.
"It's a big tribute to our offence," said Dickson after the game. "We stuck to the program . We're a five-man unit - we move the ball quick."
Maple Ridge dominated Burnaby at other aspects of the game as well, taking a decided majority of faceoffs in the opening two periods, while also enjoying a significant number of the loose balls.
"The faceoffs were huge tonight," added Dickson, who is currently running away with the scoring lead and a WLA-best 22 goals in just his first five games. "But it came down to wanting it more - outhustling and outplaying them."
The Lakers started the second period on a brighter note, shaving the deficit to within two goals following Dane Stevens' first of two goals from the left side.
But Dickson re-established the visitor's four-goal advantage late in the frame, with two successive tallies including an intercepted attempted clearing pass inside the Burnaby end that he quickly turned into his fifth goal of the game.
In the final stanza, Dickson scored off another five-on-three power play after Burnaby went down two men for the second time in the game, this time on back-to-back unsportsmanlike calls.
"We had penalty trouble. Every time we've lost, we've been in the penalty box," admitted veteran lefthander Chase Williams, who had a pair of goals for the Lakers. "We got a few more goals - it's going in the right way, but it's coming down to penalty trouble - keeping out of the penalty box - it's a momentum killer for us."
Stevens led all Lakers with a four-point night. Jackson Decker also had a pair of goals and a single helper.
Dan Lewis stopped 36 shots in the Burnaby nets, while Chris Levis got the win with 44 saves.
Bertoia, with four goals, and Andrew Murphy both had five-point outings for the 4-1 Burrards.
Burnaby remains winless in its first three starts.
The Lakers have two tough games ahead of them this week, playing last season's league and playoff champion Langley Thunder on the road tonight (Wednesday).
Burnaby is back at home to unbeaten Victoria Shamrocks on Friday at the Copeland centre. Game time is an early 7 p.m. start.
