Islanders snap Thunder win streak

Langley Thunder's Liam Sutton attempts to elude his defender during BC Junior Tier 1 Lacrosse League action at Langley Events Centre on June 18. Ryan Molag photo

The Langley Thunder’s three-game win streak came to a crashing halt on Tuesday night.

Riding high on a season-best surge, the Thunder fell behind in the opening period and never recovered against the visiting Delta Islanders at Langley Events Centre in BC Junior Tier 1 Lacrosse League action.

The Islanders were ahead 5-1 following 20 minutes and coasted to the 13-8 victory. The Islanders improved to 10-6 in the standings while Langley saw their record slip to 7-8.

The Thunder entered the game with the league’s second best power-play, scoring on nearly one-third (32.9 percent) of their chances. But against Delta, the team had three power-play opportunities in the first period alone (including a full five-minute man advantage) but scored just once in that span.

“As a group, we just have to flush that and get ready for Saturday,” said Thunder coach Darren Buchan, referencing the team’s next game which will be against the Shamrocks in Victoria.

It is the first of back-to-back games for the Thunder this weekend as they also host the Nanaimo Timbermen on Sunday (June 23, 2:00pm) at Langley Events Centre.

“We have gotten really good goaltending and defence recently (but) nothing worked tonight,” he said. “We couldn’t catch, pass, we were dropping balls all over the place; we didn’t play well, every third shot went in.”

Brayden Longacre led the Langley offence with three goals and four assists – his 28 goals, 30 assists and 57 points are tops in all three categories for the Thunder – while the team’s newest acquisition, Ryan Sheldrake had two goals and four points in his debut.

Mac Timms, Austin Vanichuk and Connyr Welch scored once apiece. In goal, Caleb Khan made 12 saves on 24 shots with Todd Hensrud entering midway through the game and finishing with 20 saves on 25 shots.

Vaughn Pinchin (4-1) and Elijah Gill (4-2) both had four-goal games for Delta while Jett Burns stopped 28 of the 36 Langley shots.

The Langley Thunder lacrosse organization consists of Senior A, Junior A and Junior Tier 1 teams who play in the Western Lacrosse Association, BC Junior A Lacrosse League and BC Junior Tier 1 Lacrosse League respectively. All three teams play their home games at Langley Events Centre.

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