Strange forces were at work at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre this week.
The Burnaby Lakers followed the junior A lacrosse team’s extraordinary comeback almost to the letter, posting an eerily similar 8-7 victory over the visiting Nanaimo Timbermen in Western Lacrosse Association play on Tuesday.
Two days earlier, the Burnaby juniors were down by five goals before mounting their 9-7 comeback win over Port Coquitlam.
The senior A Lakers trailed 5-0 after the first period and began their unlikely trek back at 6:49 of the second period – the exact same time the juniors started their Sunday rally.
As incredible as it sounds, both teams were helped out by a five-minute penalty against them at a similar moment of the second period that resulted in a pair of turn-around shorthanded goals.
In Tuesday’s case, it was back-to-back beauties from first star Robert Church, who last Saturday shared in a Champion’s Cup with the Edmonton Rush of the NLL, that got the Lakers back on track.
“It’s just a fluke, a complete fluke,” said an unconvinced Church after the game.
Church went on to score two more goals in the game, including his fourth of the night, which sparked a 3-0 shutout period for the Lakers.
In Sunday’s junior game, Burnaby also blanked PoCo in the final frame.
Another coincidence was in goal.
Tye Belanger, who was picked up from Brampton just days before, gave up the first six goals of the game, was near-perfect the rest of the way, allowing just one past him in the final 33 minutes.
Belanger, a Wallaceburg, Ont. product, played in the NLL with New England.
In the junior game, another recent pickup Graham Husick blanked PoCo from the 6:49 mark on.
Dane Stevens, with a five-point night, spurred the about-face with his fifth goal of the campaign.
“It was a big bonus, getting that first goal,” said Church, still adamant there was no hocus-pocus going on. “We’re not that far away. Once we’re back together we’ll be all right.”
Burnaby is in Coquitlam on Saturday. Game time is 7 p.m.
