A bad penalty brought out the best in the Burnaby Lakers.
Stinging from a 7-2 deficit, the junior A Lakers turned a five-minute slashing major into the catalyst for an unlikely comeback in Burnaby’s 9-7 victory over the Port Coquitlam Saints at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre on Sunday.
Two shorthanded counters by Aidan Milburn and Anthony Quatrano, to start things off, sparked an unanswered nine-goal rally that ended a Burnaby losing streak at nine games.
“We always seem to dig ourselves a big hole and always come back, but this time we came back and won,” said Milburn, who led the Lakers with a hat trick.
With six call-ups and its two top midget draft picks out of the lineup, Burnaby took inspiration from righthander Tyler Kirkby and Danny Spagnuolo, on the left side, to keep the comeback going in the final 20 minutes.
Kirby shaved the deficit to 7-5 with a laser to the top corner in the opening minutes of the third period.
Spagnuolo, with back-to-back markers less than two minutes later, tied the contest at sevens.
Jordan Lashar scored the game-winning goal on an unassisted loose ball breakaway at the midway mark of the period.
Milburn finished off the Saints with his league-leading 26th goal of the season – a quick shot from the right side to the top corner that beat PoCo’s Giulio Del Bianco.
Graham Husick had his best game in Laker green, posting a 0.837 save percentage while making 36 stops and blanking PoCo from the 6:39 mark of the second period on.
“I just think we needed to bear down,” said Milburn. “It was definitely a Burnaby (character) win. We’re pretty fired up in there. But we’ll have to come down to Earth for our next game though.”
Burnaby is in Ladner Saturday for a date with the Delta Islanders. The Lakers are back at the Copeland centre next Sunday to meet the Langley Thunder. Game time is 7 p.m.
