T-Men spoil Thunder season debut

The Langley Thunder held the lead briefly late in the first period, but after that, it was all Nanaimo as the visiting Timbermen delivered a one-sided 13-6 victory.

The Thunder were hosting the Nanaimo Timbermen in BC Tier 1 Lacrosse League season on Sunday afternoon at Langley Events Centre. Nanaimo improved to 2-0 while Langley is 0-1.

The Thunder had fallen behind 2-0 in the early going after allowing a pair of power-play strikes 17 seconds apart in the opening six minutes but responded with three straight goals. The lead was short-lived however, as the Timbermen scored twice in a span of eight seconds and took a 5-3 lead to the locker room.

And that would be as close as Langley would get with the Timbermen outscoring the Thunder 6-1 in the middle stanza and leading by 13-4 early in the third before Langley scored the game’s final two goals.

“We really just couldn’t get things settled down and we didn’t play as focused as we should be,” said Langley coach Kris Bryde, pointing out to the fact the team had too many dropped balls, didn’t hustle enough for loose balls and got out-transitioned by their Nanaimo counterparts.

“Those are key parts to the game. We want to win all those battles.”

41 Braiden Struss-Reid led Langley with two goals and five points while Kanen Hunter had four assists. Tristan Kirkham (one goal, two assists), N Lavigne (two goals) and Josh Bramley (one goal) also found the back of the net for the Thunder. Half of Langley’s goals came with the man advantage

Nanaimo’s Wade Mason had three goals while Riley Arsenault had a pair of goals.

Langley is back in action on Friday when they travel to Coquitlam to face the Adanacs.

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For more information:

Gary Ahuja, Langley Events Centre, 604.613.5242 (cell), 604.455.8830 (office) or email.