Timely offence and some clutch saves have the Langley Thunder one victory away from a spot in the championship final.
Tied at nine late in the second period, the Thunder scored six of the final eight goals to defeat the Nanaimo Timbermen 15-11 on Sunday afternoon, taking a 2-0 lead in the BC Junior A Lacrosse League best-of-five semi-final series.
Langley also took game one on Saturday afternoon in Nanaimo 14-13, scoring 11 unanswered goals to erase a 6-2 deficit.
Game two began with the Thunder building an 8-4 lead after a period before Nanaimo stormed back in the second, cutting the deficit to 12-10 with a period to play. And the Timbermen were then given a five-minute power play and 77 seconds into that advantage, they scored their third man-advantage goal of the game, making it 12-11 with more than 13 minutes to play.
But Brayden Wandler shut the door the rest of the way as the Thunder goalie finished with 15 saves in the third period alone.
“They probably had six, seven shots in a row, within 45 seconds,” Langley coach Adam Smith said of that third-period power play. “And then he comes out to finish it off with (Jacob) Dunbar trying the wrap-around and does the acrobatic saves. He stood on his head tonight and we needed that from him.”
Wandler finished with 37 saves in the game.
“Just doing my job in that net, that crease … saving that ball,” Wandler said. “We all just have to do our roles. I just have to trust my defence and let them do their job.”
Shortly after the penalty expired, Drew Kask made it a two-goal lead with the Thunder’s third power-play game before Kyle Brunsch made it 14-11 with 2:36 to play and Kaden Doughty scored into the empty net 53 seconds later.
With Wandler being a solid last line of defence, for the second straight game, it was the duo of Brunsch and Stuart Phillips leading the offence as they have combined to score 18 of their team’s 29 goals.
Brunsch had five goals and seven points while Phillips had a hat trick and six points on Sunday. In game one, Phillips scored six times and set up two others and Brunsch had four goals and an assist.
Trade deadline pick-up Noah Armitage made his Thunder debut with two goals and an assist while Cody Malawsky (one goal, one assist), Declan Fitzpatrick (one goal, one assist) and Matt Abbott (one goal) had the other Langley goals in game two.
“They are getting their feet moving and coming across and just picking their spots,” Smith said of his offence, which has now scored 55 goals in three playoff games. “Moving the ball well and putting it where they need to on their shots.”
One area the coach stressed his team needs improving is their discipline.
In game one, the Timbermen were five-for-seven on the power play and on Sunday, Nanaimo cashed in three of their four chances. Langley was zero-for-one the first game and three-for-four on Sunday.
The series now shifts back to Nanaimo for game three on Saturday (July 23, 4:00pm) with the Timbermen needing a victory to extend their season. Should that happen, game four would be Sunday (July 24, 4:00pm) back at Langley Events Centre.
Photos courtesy of Ryan Molag Langley Events Centre
