Langley eyes playoff berth as team visits Burnaby

The Langley Thunder (10-6) look for a third straight victory and to clinch a spot in the Western Lacrosse Association playoffs as they travel to face the Burnaby Lakers (4-13) in the Lakers final game of the season.

The contest gets underway at 7:30PM at the Bill Copeland Arena and can be streamed at www.wlalacrosse.com/wlatv

Previous Game

After trailing for most of the Friday’s game in Victoria against the Shamrocks, the Thunder scored the final three goals, including Chase Scanlan’s fourth of the game with 74 seconds to send Langley to the 13-12 victory.

Connor Robinson (three goals, three assists) and Dane Dobbie (two goals, four assists) both posted six-point games while Dylan Kinnear had a goal and four helpers. Steve Fryer stopped 48 of 60 shots for Langley as his team was outshot 60-48.

The Lakers are coming off a second consecutive defeat as they fell 12-6 on the road in New Westminster against the Salmonbellies on July 28. Toron Eccleston had a goal and three points for Burnaby.

Offence

Dobbie leads Langley with 33 goals and 66 points, and he sits second in the league (as of July 30) with 5.1 points per game while teammate Curtis Dickson (23 goals, 58 points) is tied for third at 4.8ppg.

The Thunder boast four 20-goal scorers as Robert Church (26 goals) and Scanlan (23 goals) are also part of that club. Church also has 51 points on the season while Robinson (15 goals, 34 assists) has 39 points, giving Langley four players averaging more than four points per game.

Eccleston leads the Lakers with 28 goals and 53 points while Connor Watson (15 goals, 38 points) and Laszlo Henning (12 goals, 32 points) sit second and third, respectively, on the team.

Goaltending

Frank Scigliano leads all WLA goalies with an 8.15 goals against average and is second with an .835 save percentage as he has played in 12 of his team’s games. Fryer has won both of his starts with a 9.50 GAA and .827 save percentage.

For the Lakers, Zak Boychuk is third in the WLA with 500 total saves, he has an 11.98 GAA and .770 save percentage.

Special Teams

The Thunder power play enters the game ranked No. 1 (38 goals on 78 chances, .487) while their penalty kill comes in at third (28 goals on 71 opportunities, .606). The Lakers are fifth with both the man advantage (30-for-83, .361) and on the penalty kill (36 goals allowed on 84 chances, .571). The Thunder are also second in the WLA with 10 short-handed goals while Burnaby has allowed 15 goals while up a man, tied for most in the league.

Head-to-Head

The teams have played twice already with Langley winning both times thanks to strong third periods.

The first contest was an 8-6 victory at Langley Events Centre on June 29 with the Thunder scoring the only two goals of the third period to snap a tie game. Dickson scored four goals and finished with six points to lead Langley in the first contest and Eccleston’s three goals and four points paced the Lakers in the loss.

The teams then met in Burnaby on July 15 with Langley scoring six goals in the opening 10:33 to open a 6-0 lead before the Lakers battled back tying the score at seven early in the third before the Thunder struck for the final four goals. Robinson led the attack with three goals and eight points while James Rahe had a hat trick for Burnaby.

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