The Maple Ridge Burrards didn’t get the start they looking for Sunday night at home against the Langley Thunder, but they got the result they wanted as they overcame a four-goal deficit to win 11-10.
“We didn’t make things easy on ourselves, but I think the fact we were able to come back shows we are confident in our abilities,” said Burrards coach Daren Fridge. “We just need to work on getting a consistent effort to avoid getting into that position to begin with.”
The Burrards improve to 3-3 this season in Western Lacrosse Association action with the win, and move into fourth place in the WLA standings.
The Burrards fell behind early Sunday night as the Langley Thunder opened up a 4-0 lead in the first three-and-a-half minutes of the game. Although they had played the night before, Langley showed no signs of fatigue as they tallied goals with their first four shots.
However, Fridge doesn’t blame his goalie for the early deficit.
“It was a combination of things. They were outrunning us... he didn’t see the shots be released, and those shots were perfectly placed,” said Fridge. “He didn’t even have a chance to get into the game.”
Fridge opted to temporarily pull Schibild after the fourth goal, putting Carson Michaud in net instead. The change-up gave the team a break in the action to regroup and get into the game, said Fridge. Two and a half minutes later, Schibild was back in net, and went on to stop 31 of 37 shots the rest of the game.
“He made some diving saves late in the game that definitely kept us in it,” said Fridge.
With Schibild back between the pipes, the Burrards proceeded to score five unanswered goals in the first period, erasing Langley’s lead in less than 10 minutes.
Curtis Dickson opened the scoring for the Burrards six minutes into the opening frame, and added another five minutes later. Dayne Michaud scored to cut Langley’s lead to one, and with less than five minutes to play in the period, Joel Dalgarno tied things with his ninth goal of the season.
Pete Tellis added another with three minutes left in the period to send the Burrards into the intermission with an improbable 5-4 lead.
Langley pushed back in the second period with three unanswered goals of their to retake the lead.
However a quick pair of goals late in the period by Dalgarno and Tellis tied things up for the Burrards going into the third.
The two teams traded goals for the first half of the period before Derek Lowe’s goal with six minutes to play tied the game at 10 apiece. The score remained knotted until Dickson completed his hat trick with 39 seconds left on the clock to give the Burrards their third win of the season.
Dickson finished with six points, as did Dalgarno, who finished with four goals. Tellis had two goals and two assists, while Lowe had one goal and three assists. Rookie Riley Loewen also had a four-point night, posting a quartet of assists.
Garrett McIntosh, Aaron Pascas, and Schibild each had assists as well.
The Burrards penalty kill was perfect, stopping all four Langley power play opportunities.
“I was really happy with our back end,” said Fridge. “[After falling behind 4-0], they definitely stepped up and played more physically.”
The Burrards power play was also factor, as they connected on four of their six opportunities.
The Burrards travel to Langley to play the Thunder for the third and final time this regular season on Saturday, before returning home on Sunday to host the league-leading Victoria Shamrocks in their first meeting of the season. Game time is at 6:45 p.m. at Planet Ice in Maple Ridge.