Third-period surge sends Thunder to game two victory

Chase Scanlan has three goals and 10 points in two games as the Langley Thunder are ahead of the Nanaimo Timbermen 2-0 in the best-of-seven WLA Finals. Ryan Molag LEC file photo

Another strong third period has given the Langley Thunder a 2-0 series lead in the Western Lacrosse Association Finals.

Tied at five with 20 minutes to play, the Thunder struck for a pair of early goals in the third period and then traded goals the rest of the way, defeating the Nanaimo Timbermen 10-8 on Sunday night at Nanaimo's Frank Crane Arena in game two of the best-of-seven championship series.

The series resumes on Tuesday (August 23) at Langley Events Centre with game four set for Thursday (August 25) back in Nanaimo with both games starting at 7:00pm.

Langley won the opener on August 19, scoring the game's final eight goals in a 12-4 victory and it was a player who missed that game who led the way on Sunday as Dane Dobbie  delivered four goals and seven points.

Dobbie scored the first and fourth goals of the opening frame with Thomas Vaesen and Erik Maas adding goals in between as the Thunder jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the Timbermen finally got on the board with 87 seconds to play in the first. But while Langley led 4-1after a period, the middle stanza was the complete opposite as this time it was the Timbermen scoring four times to Langley's one goal -- which came off the stick of Dobbie --- as the two teams went to the second intermission tied at five.

Curtis Dickon gave Langley the lead for good 23 seconds into the final period and then with the Thunder short-handed, it was Dobbie scoring his fourth of the night.

Chase Scanlan and Keegan Bell added the other Langley goals.

For the second straight game, goaltender Frank Scigliano stood tall in the Langley net, earning second star honours following a 46-save performance as his team was outshot 54-37.

Scanlan finished with a pair of goals and six points, Dickson has three assists to go along with his goal while Connor Robinson (three assists) and Vaesen (one goal, two assists) each had three-point games and Maas had a goal and an assist.

For Nanaimo, Zach Manns (two goals, one assist), Colton Lidstone (three assists), Jon Phillips (one goal, one assist) and Taggart Clark (two assists) each had multi-point games. Adam Jay, Jerome Thompson, Coady Adamson and Jerrett Smith had the other goals.

Devlin Shanahan stopped 27 of 37 shots.

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