The Burnaby junior A Lakers will have to learn to not read too much into a final score following a pair of recent B.C. Junior Lacrosse League losses.
On May 16, Burnaby wound up on the losing end of an 11-8 defeat to current second place Langley. The Lakers then got thumped 16-2 at home to the league-leading Delta Islanders at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre on Sunday.
Although the discrep-ency in the final scores suggests the Delta matchup was non-competitive, the reverse is true. Both losses came largely in a single-period span.
In Langley, Burnaby surrendered three goals in the opening period and then matched the Thunder in goals and shots the rest of the way.
At home, a 10-1 middle-period meltdown was largely responsible for a very good Delta club executing at the top of its game rather than Burnaby rolling over and playing dead.
"(Delta) had a lot of chances in the second period. You can't give their top 3 guys those opportunities. It's going to hurt," said former Islander Trenton Matsuzaki, who came to Burnaby in a trade in 2011. "But it's coming along, there's a good vibe."
That vibe was apparent against the Thunder.
Rookie keeper Jack Woodhouse stopped 42 shots in the loss and first-year runner Tyler Kirkby tallied his first hat trick of the season to spark a two-period rally that fell just short.
Third-year Brendan Shea potted a pair of second-period goals before Langley scored two goals less than 20 seconds apart to ice the contest 13 minutes into the final frame.
At the Copeland centre, Delta opened the second period with a power-play goal left over from a four-minute back check in the opening period.
The next few goals all had athletic merit and some just plain good luck, including a sensational shorthanded marker by NOW player of the game Eli McLaughlin, who pulled down a sky-high pass from Cody Nass to score in close on Woodhouse.
Delta then got a Hollywood scripted breakaway goal from Ben Snider coming out of the penalty box.
League scoring leader Cody Nass, with 10 points Sunday and 48 overall, followed with a goal for the highlight reel. The first-year righty picked up the ball and stick that had been checked out of his hand in a crowd of Lakers, turned toward the goal and beat a couple of defenders before scoring his 18th goal of the season on a great single effort.
Nass also assisted on nine other Delta counters, including four of McLaughlin's five goals.
"It's going to take the whole team to make a difference," added Matsuzaki. "We have a lot of first-years. It's going to take that veteran leadership in the room to keep them going and keep things positive."
Burnaby is in Coquitlam tonight at 7: 30 p.m.
