Thunder offence goes silent in critical loss

by Gary Ahuja

Dylan Kinnear and the rest of the Langley Thunder offence found it hard to operate against a tough Coquitlam Adanacs defence on Wednesday night at Langley Events Centre  as Carson Barton (#5) and the visitors left with the 10-7 victory. Garrett James Langley Events Centre

Needing a victory to try and stay in the Western Lacrosse Association playoff race as the season nears the midway point, the Langley Thunder offence went silent in the third period of a 10-7 loss to the Coquitlam Adanacs.

Both teams now sit at 2-6 after taking turns winning on one another’s home floor as they met for the second time in five days. On Saturday, it was the Thunder coming off a season-high offensive game, scoring a dozen times in a 12-8 victory.

And on Wednesday night, the teams renewed hostilities, this time at Langley Events Centre.

The game was back-and-forth all night with the teams tied at three after one period before Langley took a 7-6 lead after 40 minutes. But from there, the offence went cold, going scoreless in the frame while Coquitlam tied the score with five minutes to play on a goal from John Hofseth and then potted the winner with 1:57 to play, off the stick of Chase McIntyre.

The Adanacs sealed the victory with a pair of empty-net goals. 

“I thought our defence played well and our goaltending was good, but our offence let us down,” said Thunder head coach Rod Jensen. “You can’t be at home and score seven goals in a game.”

Langley had three goals in a span of 27 seconds in the second period, turning a 5-4 deficit into a 7-5 lead, but that would be the last time the Thunder found the back of the net.

Of the team’s seven goals, six came in transition as the offence had trouble running their set plays successfully, including getting blanked in that crucial third period.

“I know these games are tight, but we didn’t change it up. The goalie had a good look at the ball, we didn’t use diversity or creativity and hence we got in a rut,” lamented Jensen. “And if you don’t score in five or 10, hence you start to press. We weren’t shooting the ball very well, we weren’t moving very well. We made our own bed.”

Coady Adamson, the game’s second star, led the offence with two goals while Dane Dobbie had a goal and two helpers. Connor Robinson, Dalton Lupul and Aidan Milburn each had a goal and an assist with Dylan Kinnear rounding out the scoring with one goal.

Steve Fryer stood tall in goal, turning aside 46 of 54 shots.

At the other end of the floor, the Adanacs’ Andrew Gallant stopped 38 of 45 to earn the game’s third star. First star went to his teammate, Matt Delmonico was first star with a goal and four assists. Matt Symes (two goals, three assists) and Hofseth (two goals, one assist) both had multi-goal games for the Adanacs.

Langley will look to get back in the win column when they travel to Burnaby to face the Lakers at Bill Copeland Arena on Friday night (June 21).

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For more information:

Gary Ahuja, Langley Events Centre, 604.613.5242 (cell), 604.455.8830 (office) or email.