Holding off the Victoria Shamrocks proved too heavy a load for the Burnaby Lakers on Friday.
The senior A Burnaby club held a five-goal lead midway through its Western Lacrosse Association match with visiting Victoria, but wound up on the losing end of an 11-9 score line at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.
"Devastating," was the first word to come from the mouth of Burnaby second star Carlton Schuss, who potted his second consecutive multi-goal outing for the Lakers.
Schuss's hat trick goal at 12: 37 of the middle frame gave the home Lakers a 8-4 lead, sending 'Rocks goalie Josh Phillips to an early shower.
Matt Flindell returned to the game and seconds later, Peter McFetridge scored his first goal of the season on a two-on-one transition.
But that's the last goal Flindell would give up.
Victoria cut the deficit to three goals just before the interval, and then tallied five unanswered markers to steal a win that had Burnaby written all over it.
"We weren't playing fundamentally well (in the third period)," said Schuss, who has scored seven goals in his last two outings for the Lakers. "You want to close them down in the last few minutes. We were really looking for that next goal to get us rolling, but the ball just wasn't bouncing."
Lady luck was not on the Lakers side either.
After a late goal by first star Ryan Benesch cut the lead to four goals, Cory Small got what appeared an easy one with the goalie on the bench for a sixth attacker.
In the third period, Jeff Shattler drew the visitors to within a goal following an iffy slashing penalty call. Mitch McLaren then tied the contest with a blind spin-a-rama shot following an offensive turnover with five minutes left in the game.
Dan Lewis was in goal for Burnaby facing 47 shots, including 22 in the final frame.
Burnaby's next game is Friday at home against New Westminster.
