The Burnaby Lakers play some of their best lacrosse against the Victoria Shamrocks, but it's still not enough to break a home-floor jinx.
For the fifth time in seven starts at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre, Burnaby went down to defeat, this time losing a close 8-6 decision to the visiting 'Rocks on Friday.
Burnaby fell behind 5-3 after the opening period but played the league-leaders even up after that.
"The second and third periods is how we want to play," said Burnaby defender Pete McFetridge, who took a ball to the facemask in the middle period but later returned to the floor. "The first period wasn't up to our standard. Victoria is a team you can't come out slow on."
Robert Church tied the game 3-3 on back-to-back scores a minute apart, but the visitors got those back later in the frame.
Victoria held three-goal leads on three separate occasions during the second and third periods.
Church got the deficit down to two goals with his hat-trick goal on a five-on-three power play late in the game.
With the loss, Burnaby's home record fell to a league-low 2-5, in start contrast to its 5-1 record away from the Copeland centre.
"That's a tough one to put your finger on. It's obviously something we want to turn around," McFetridge said of the poor home record. "I think we have lapses. For the most part it's there, but there are times we get complacent or lose our focus."
Church led all scorers with a five-point night. First star Corey Small also garnered five points, including a pair of goals for Victoria.
Matt Flindell took the win with 44 saves, while Tyler Richards stopped 36 Victoria shots in the Burnaby cage.
The Lakers remained alone in third place despite the loss with a 7-6-0 record.
The Shamrocks all but wrapped up first place, bettering their first-place record to 11-1-2 with four games yet to play.
Burnaby takes on the Coquitlam Adanacs this Friday at home in a game that could make or break either team's playoff hopes in the closely bunched pack. Game time is 7:45 p.m.
Currently, just five points separates second place from sixth as the regular season nears its final two weeks of play.
