TWO OUT OF THREE AIN’T BAD?

The Langley Junior A Thunder completed their annual road trip this weekend. Friday night they played the Nanaimo Timbermen, stayed overnight and travelled to Bear Mountain Arena in Colwood to play the Victoria Shamrocks Saturday afternoon.

In both games the Thunder either were competitive or dominated two out of three periods with a one period melt downs that lead to back to back losses. The coaches and management do not agree with the old Meatloaf song “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad”. There is some comfort in the fact that for the first time in years this young team is competitive and most nights they out shoot their opponents. They lead the league by a large margin in Power Play goals with 28 and the 2009 first round draft choice, Reegan Comeault, is second in the league in scoring. However this team has not learned how to win.

Friday night’s game against Nanaimo, the Thunder were one goal behind after the first period outshooting their opponent 17 to 13. The wheels fell off in the second when Nanaimo outscored the Thunder 7 to 1. Then the Thunder rebounded in the third outscoring their opponent 5-3. The result of abandoning the second period was a 13 to 8 loss.

The Thunder had a later 8:00 PM start on Friday and had a 5:00 PM early evening start at Bear Mountain against the Shamrocks. Despite this, Langley built up a 5 to 4 lead with one minute left in the second period. Victoria scored in the last minute to tie the game. The third period was all Victoria, outscoring the Thunder 6 to 1 for a final score of 11 to 6. Langley appeared to run out of gas in the third against the rested Shamrocks.

Head coach Rey Comeault said, “We continue to make progress. Morale is good amongst the players. My job has to be to convince them on how close they are to being able to win games.”

The Thunder will have their work cut out for them on Wednesday, May 26 against the reigning league champion and undefeated Coquitlam Adanacs. Game time is 8:00 PM at the Coquitlam Sports Centre. The next Thunder home game is Thursday May 27th when the New Westminster Salmonbellies come to town. Game time is 7:30 PM at the Langley Events Centre. Tickets are available on line.