Lakers improve to 5-1
After suffering a bitter loss on Friday, night, the Lakers were determined to bounce back on Saturday night. Unfortunately, the host Coquitlam Adanacs weren't as interested in supporting that goal.
The first period starts identically to the one from the night before. Two early goals from the opponents and then two from the Lakers to even things up. Robert Church scored the first Burnaby goal, Sam Clare followed up with the second.
It took until more than six minutes into the second before the Lakers - Church's second of the night - scored again to take their first lead of the game. Coquitlam answered back before captain Dane Stevens was able to break the deja vu scoring and improve the Lakers score to 4-3. The remainder of the period - and the game - was a back and forth of scoring with both teams trading leads several times.
Church put up his third and fourth of the night during the second period and Peter McFetridge also added a one-goal contribution.
Third period scoring came from rookie Brodie Gillespie who'd suited up for the first time as a Laker and second-yera player, Pearson Willis who scored for the first time this season.
Deadlocked at night after sixty minutes, the Lakers and Adanacs were the first teams to put the WLA's new 3-on-3 sudden death OT structure to the test.
The Adanacs had taken a minor penalty at the 20-minute mark of the third period which meant the play actually started with the Lakers enjoy a 4-on-3 advantage. At exactly the time when that penalty expired, Tyler Digby was able to bury the ball and put an end to the extra period.
Shots were 63-49 for Burnaby and goaltender Eric Penney made 40 saves on the night.