The Maple Ridge Burrards had a mixed weekend, after their 9-7 win Friday night over the Burnaby Lakers was followed by a huge 15-5 loss to the New Westminster Salmonbellies on Sunday.
The two games put the Burrards one point behind league leaders the Victoria Shamrocks, with a 10-5-0 record, meaning a playoff spot is all but secured.
But head coach Rob Williams said Sunday’s loss still stung, and that it came as a “wake-up call” as the team heads into its final games of the season.
“We’ve only had two bad games so far this season, and this was one of them,” Williams said.
“It’s been a long season and we’ve been pushing really hard. Now we just have to move past it and focus on what’s next.”
Friday’s game at Burnaby’s Bill Copeland Arena saw a slow start for the Burrards, who only scored once in the first compared to the Lakers’ five goals.
Going into the second, goalie Frank Scigliano and the rest of the Burrards defence regrouped and “stepped it up a notch,” Williams said.
That resulted in a quiet period that only saw one goal from each team, who went into the third facing a 6-2 lead for Burnaby.
That’s when the offence “pulled their socks off,” Williams said, and came roaring back with seven goals, six of which came before the 10-minute mark.
Burnaby tried to interrupt the momentum with a goal of their own, but Scigliano wouldn’t let anything past him after that.
Ben McIntosh scored a hat trick during that third-period rush and was awarded the night’s first star. He also posted two assists throughout the night.
Riley Loewen’s two goals and two assists helped him secure the third star.
Back home at Planet Ice, Sunday’s game couldn’t have gone more differently.
Instead of coming back from behind again, like they have so often this season, the Burrards instead seemed to give more confidence to New West, who outshot their opponents 58-40 and kept the pressure on them across all three periods.
It looked like the Burrards were slowly coming back by the end of the second, posting three more goals to make it 9-5 for New West.
But they ended up scoreless in the third, as the Salmonbellies scored six more times to take an easy win, making it a bitter pill to swallow for goalie Scigliano.
Matthew Dinsdale was still able to score a hat trick of his own, along with one assist, taking the game’s third star.
The Burrards were hoping to get some payback against the Salmonbellies after losing their previous matchup 10-8 on July 6.
They still went down swinging by posting a whopping 94 penalty minutes, compared to New West’s 40 minutes.
Things got heated in the second, when Kevin Reid instigated a fight that ended up costing him 30 minutes total, including 10 for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Dayne Michaud also received 10 minutes for his conduct during that same fight. He later got another 10 for high sticking that led to a fight, which got DJ Saari 25 minutes for fighting and unsportsmanlike conduct.
With their Tuesday game against the Langley Thunder wrapped up, the Burrards now have only two games left for the regular season.
They’ll face New West once more on Sunday, July 23 at Planet Ice, before heading to Coquitlam on Saturday, July 29 to face the Adanacs.