Thunder offence leads way

Chase Scanlan continues his strong offensive season with another two goals and five points in the Langley Thunder's 15-11 win in New Westminster on July 11. For the season, Scanlan leads the team with 29 goals, 26 assists and 55 points. Ryan Molag file photo

Make it five wins and a tie in their past seven games for the streaking Langley Thunder.

The Thunder travelled to New Westminster on Thursday night to defeat the Salmonbellies 15-11 in Western Lacrosse Association action. The victory improved Langley to 6-6-1 and they sit second in the tightly packed playoff race which sees three points separate second place from fifth place. The Salmonbellies are in that fifth spot at 5-7.

The top four teams make the WLA post-season.

Langley opened a 2-0 lead and never trailed against the Salmonbellies, leading 6-3 after a period and holding a multi-goal advantage from just past the midway point of the opening frame. The Thunder tacked on seven more goals in the middle stanza to go up 13-8. New Westminster did get the deficit down to three with just under 16 minutes to play but Langley allowed just one goal the rest of the way.

Robert Church – who earlier in the week was named by Lacrosse Canada to the final roster for the Men’s World Box Lacrosse Championship in September – led the way with five goals and eight points to earn the first star. Connor Robinson (3-3) and Clay Scanlan (3-1) both had hat tricks with Charles Scanlan (1-4) and Chase Scanlan (2-3) each finishing with five points. Nathan Lam had the other Langley goal and goaltender Aden Walsh made 51 saves on 62 shots.

Langley also won the special teams battle, going 2-for-4 with the man advantage while killing off their only short-handed situation and even scoring while a man down.

Will Malcom’s two goals and seven points led New Westminster with Austin Ducommun adding a goal and four assists. Justin Geddie (15 saves on 26 shots) and Neil Tyacke (22 saves on 26 shots) split the goaltending duties for the Salmonbellies.

Langley wraps up a three-game road trip on Saturday (July 13) in Coquitlam against the Adanacs in the final meeting of the season between the two. The Adanacs have won once and the teams’ tied in their most recent game.

The Thunder’s next home game is July 17 at 7:00pm at Langley Events Centre against the Nanaimo Timbermen.

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