Game Preview: Thunder in Victoria to face Shamrocks

by Gary Ahuja

Fresh off a convincing victory to open the Western Lacrosse Association season, the Langley Thunder hit the road for the first time this season with a trip to the provincial capital to face the Victoria Shamrocks.

The game is set for 6:45pm on Friday, May 26 at Victoria’s Q Centre and is available to stream at www.wlalacrosse.com/wlatv

The Thunder were 20-6 winners over the Burnaby Lakers to open the WLA season on May 24 while this will be the Shamrocks’ first contest of 2023. The game is also a rematch of last summer’s WLA semi-final series, which Langley won in six games.

Against the Lakers, Langley was held off the scoresheet for the first 6:55 before closing the period with eight consecutive goals. They stretched the lead to 11-0 early in the middle frame before the Lakers finally got on the board. Robert Church led the way with a four-goal, nine-point effort while Dane Dobbie registered the sock trick and finished with eight points. Curtis Dickson (1+6) and Chase Scanlan (3+4) each delivered seven-point games and rookie Jake Bowen marked his first WLA game with a pair of goals and two assists.  And in goal, Frank Scigliano was impressive, turning aside 32 of 34 shots in the first two periods.

With special teams, the Thunder power play went 1-for-2 while the penalty kill allowed a pair of goals on four Burnaby opportunities. Langley did manage to register a short-handed goal.

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