Tuning up for the Timbermen

Coming home to a hot streak

 

The Burnaby Lakers are entering an important stretch in their 2016 Western Lacrosse Association season.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200"] Robert Church. Photo by Garrett James[/caption]

At 5-4-1, Burnaby is still sitting out of a possible playoff spot despite an unbeaten three-game streak last week that included a 14-2 victory over the Langley Thunder at home and a 7-7 draw with the New Westminster Salmonbellies at Queen's Park.

With the trading deadline come and gone, the senior A Lakers bolstered their already red-hot goalkeeping with the signing of Tyler Richards.

This move should vastly improve Burnaby's already league-best goals against and penalty-killing stats, making them a good bet for the post season.

But before that happens unwavering focus on the upcoming games at hand is a key priority.

At first glance, the outcome of Tuesday's game against the 3-7 Nanaimo Timbermen should be a slam dunk.

Nanaimo is 2-2 in its last four, but the last two losses were both by single goals.

The T-Men have a healthy front court with Colton Clark, Cody Bremner and former Six Nations Arrows sniper Ryan Lee leading the way with plus-27 point numbers and more than 70 shots apiece to date.

On the other hand, Burnaby is rounding into a formidable adversary for any opponent in what is becoming the most intriguing WLA regular season in memory.

Robert Church has taken a step forward from his recent second straight NLL Champion's Cup and is leading the Lakers up front, game in and game out, while averaging more than four points per game to date.

Jackson Decker is also coming off a great week of play that has seen Burnaby's transition, including Justin Salt, Pete McFetridge and Chris O'Dougherty, making solid contributions to the Lakers' recent results.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200"] Jackson Decker. Photo by Garrett James[/caption]

Zac Boychuk is coming off three consecutive and well earned game-star outings for the Green and White and currently leads the WLA in goals against and with an 0.874 save percentage.

With a second game against the Timbermen upcoming at the beginning of the next week and a rematch, with the season series on the line, against the Salmonbellies on Friday, Burnaby is well poised to make big inroads in its climb up the league table.

Burnaby hosts the Nanaimo Timbermen at the Copeland centre on Tuesday, July 5 at the early time of 7 p.m.

This coming Friday the senior A Lakers host New Westminster in a special Jack Crosby novice all-star tournament feature match up at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre at 7:45 p.m.