Timbermen trounce Thunder

Dane Dobbie scored two goals and five points but the Langley Thunder lost 16-8 to the Nanaimo Timbermen on Sunday at Nanaimo's Frank Crane Arena in Western Lacrosse Association action. Ryan Molag LEC photo

The Langley Thunder no longer control their own destiny in terms of finishing in top spot in the Western Lacrosse Association standings.

The Thunder surrendered 11 consecutive goals in a 16-8 road loss in Nanaimo to the Timbermen on Sunday. The defeat leaves Langley with a record of 13-4 and one game remaining in the regular season. And while their 26 points leave them tied with the New Westminster Salmonbellies for first place, the Salmonbellies have two games remaining.

The Timbermen improved to 11-5 and sit in third place with 22 points and should they win their final two games and Langley loses their regular season finale, Nanaimo would bump the Thunder all the way down to third place by virtue of having taken the season series 2-1 over Langley.

The Timbermen became the first team to beat the Thunder twice this season thanks to a dominant second period on Sunday at Frank Crane Arena. Langley led 3-2 after a period and were up 4-3 early in the second when Nanaimo seized control with six straight to close the middle frame and then another five to open the third to hand the Thunder their worst defeat of the season.

Previously Langley had lost twice by a single goal -- one of those was in overtime to Nanaimo -- and their other defeat was by two goals.

Dane Dobbie was the lone Langley player with multiple goals as he finished with a pair to go along with three helpers. Tristan Kirkham (1+2), Robert Church (1+1), Matt Abbott (1+1) and Dylan Kinnear (1+1) scored a goal apiece and finished with multi-point games while Nathaniel Kozevnikov and Chase Scanlan had a goal each. Abbott -- playing just his second game of the season -- was dominant on face-offs going 21-5.

In goal, Aden Walsh made 30 saves on 37 shots before while Kyle Mooney stopped 12 of 17. Nanaimo also scored twice into the empty net.

Zach Manns (3+3), Adam Wiedemann (2+2) and Jon Phillips (2+1) each had multi-point games while Kyle Playsted and Jerritt Smith both scored a goal and had four points. Devlin Shanahan made 47 saves on 55 shots.

The Thunder close out the WLA regular season on Wednesday (July 26) as they host the Burnaby Lakers at Langley Events Centre. Game time is 7:30pm.

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