The Burnaby Lakers didn't get the start they wanted in the Western Lacrosse Association season opener.
The senior A Lakers conceded an 8-7 loss to the visiting Nanaimo Timbermen in the first game of the WLA summer season at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre on Friday.
The Lakers played catch-up for half the game before taking their first lead midway through the middle period on pickup Darren Kinnear's second goal of the game on a shorthanded marker that made the score 6-5.
Doug Langlois tied the score just before the end of the period on an unassisted goal, his second shorthanded marker in the match.
In the third period, Burnaby's Chase William then put the home team ahead again, on a third consecutive short-man marker, at the 12: 16 mark of the final period following a nice setup by Shaun Dhaliwal.
But minutes later Burnaby's good fortune would run out when recent Nanaimo pickup from New Westminster, Michael Berekoff, found teammate Blake Kenny going to the net to assist on the game-tying goal with four minutes left on the clock.
First star Graham Parker then got the winner, slipping by a Burnaby defender on the shortside to bury the game-winning counter with just over one minute left.
"It was definitely not the start we were looking for," said first-year head coach Rory McDade. "(Zach Boychuk) did what he does. He stood his ground and that was the difference."
The Nanaimo goalie was overlooked in the game stars despite stopping 48 Burnaby shots on goal, including 19 in the final 20 minutes.
Burnaby outshot the T-Men 55-37 in the league opener, which had all the dropped balls and incomplete passes fans come to expect in a first game of the season.
"We have to work on boxing out in front of the net and keeping an eye on the opposition, and offensively it's just going to take some time," McDade added.
Justin Salt tallied Burnaby's first goal of the season on the power play to halve a 2-0 deficit at 7: 03 of the opening period on a breakaway goal off a turnover in the Lakers' defensive zone.
Burnaby accounted for just one even-strength goal in the match and it was a thing of beauty.
Pete McFetridge hit a streaking Kinnear with a long pass and the former Calgary Roughneck buried Burnaby's 3-3 goal behind Boychuk with a slick behind-the-back shot from in close.
"It was your typical first game - anyone can win. But they got the job done and we didn't," said McDade. "We got another tough opponent in Victoria next week. You can't ask for a better place to go to to get focused."
The Lakers will face the Shamrocks in Victoria on Friday.
