A sock trick from Chase Scanlan – the last goal coming with less than three minutes remaining – sent the Langley Thunder to a season-opening 13-12 victory to kick off the Senior A team’s Western Lacrosse Association season.
The Thunder were on the road at the Cam Neely Arena on Sunday night, earning a hard-fought 13-12 victory.
Scanlan’s sixth goal of the game came with 3:31 to play and snapped a 12-12 game.
Early on, it looked like Langley was going to run away with the contest as the Thunder built a 5-1 lead less than 14 minutes into the game before the Burrards closed the period with four of the final five goals, cutting the deficit to 6-4. Maple Ridge picked up where they left off in the second, with three goals in the first 87 seconds for the 7-6 advantage. Scanlan would tie the score shortly after, however, and the defenses and goaltending shut the door for the rest of the period for a 7-7 score with 20 minutes to play.
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The third period was back and forth as each team scored five times over the first 13:21, setting the stage for Scanlan’s sixth of the night.
In addition to Scanlan’s sock trick, Robert Church also had a memorable Langley debut, notching four goals and two assists. Curtis Dickson (one goal, two assists), Erik Maas (one goal, one assist) and Keegan Bell (one goal) had the other Thunder goals while Declan Fitzpatrick set up four goals and Andrew Garant chipped in with three assists.
Gordy Bowden stopped 32 of 44 shots in the Langley net while his counterpart, Brandon Humphrey, made 39 saves on 52 shots.
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Ryan Jones (two goals, three assists), Gordie Phillips (two goals, one assists), Brett Kujala (two goals) and Mitch McDole (two goals) each had two-goal games for the Burrards while Dennon Armstrong, James Baker and Garrett Winter all had one goal, five-point-games.
Both teams were 1-for-4 on the power play.
Up next for the Thunder is the team’s home opener on Wedensday, June 1 (7:30pm) against the Coquitlam Adanacs at Langley Events Centre.
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