It wasn’t easy, but the Maple Ridge Burrards scratched and clawed their way to a win in Friday’s season opener against the Burnaby Lakers.
The match, which took place at Bill Copeland Arena, was a heated back-and-forth situation where neither team managed to get a significant lead over the other during the entire game.
It took one of the Burrards’ newest additions, Drew Andre, less than a minute to bury one in the back of the net and begin the scoring onslaught.
Both teams then went on the defensive for several minutes, not allowing a single goal until the Lakers finally responded nearly halfway through the period.
Laszlo Henning broke the ice for the Lakers’ scoring, and they wasted no time adding another one to the scoreboard, with Ty Ewen scoring again only 17 seconds later.
At 12:48, the Lakers notched yet another goal, giving them a 3-1 lead over the visiting Burrards.
Not to be outdone, Isaac Ngyou, another first-year Burrard, got a goal of his own at 14:22 to cut the deficit down to one.
The Lakers wrapped up the first period scoring with a goal from Jacob Dunbar that put them up 4-2 going into the break.
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The Burrards came back out in the second period with a winning mentality, scoring three unanswered goals within the first five minutes of the period to give them a 5-4 lead.
At 6:49, Mark Yingling snuck one past Burrards goaltender Joel Watson to tie the game up.
This started a back-and-forth exchange, with Ryan Jones getting his second goal for the Burrards at 7:17, which Jacob Dunbar responded to with his own second goal of the game less than a minute later to tie the game once again.
Will Clayton gave the Burrards a brief lead with his goal at the halfway walk, but the Lakers then had their own scoring onslaught, with Dunbar single-handedly netting four consecutive goals to give his team a 10-7 lead over the Burrards to start the final period.
The third period was a one-sided performance from the Burrards, with the Maple Ridge team scoring four unanswered goals to close out the nail-biter with an 11-10 win.
The first star of the game went to Ryan Jones, who tallied four goals for the Burrards. Jacob Dunbar was awarded the second star for his impressive six goals for the Lakers. The third star of the game was given to Brandon Humphrey, who was an unstoppable wall for the Burrards in the third period, blocking all 15 shots he faced to let his team take the lead.
The Burrards will now be facing the Victoria Shamrocks on Sunday at 5 p.m. for the home opener of the 2023 season.
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