Someone had to lose, so fittingly, the Burnaby Lakers' season ended with a tie.
And like the proverbial Christmas gift of yore, an 8-8 deadlock Friday with the Nanaimo Timbermen was a disappointing blow to what had been such a promising season.
The two teams entered the contest knowing a win would lift one into the Western Lacrosse Association playoffs. Who would have thought this year's competitive parity, which saw five of the seven teams finish within three points of each other, would see the last post-season berth decided by a tie -- the only stalemate of the year?
To paraphrase Johnny Donne, ye olde english poet, Parity, where is thy sting?
For Burnaby, a scoreless three-on-three extra session would unceremoniously cap a year where they spent a good portion of the season in first or tied for top spot.
When captain Dane Stevens one-timed a perfect Daryl Veltman pass with four seconds left in regulation to force sudden death, it looked like they were back in control of a game that swung like a pendulum. But they couldn't bury another shot -- and they had three in the five-minute sudden-death stanza -- past rock-solid Charles Claxton.
One shot hit the post, and team leader Robert Church fired another that squeezed past Claxton and rolled wide with 25 seconds remaining.
Even the Timbermen, who proved to be warriors on the road with a 6-2-1 record away from Frank Crane Arena, seemed a little disappointed with the result, as they calmly celebrated a decision that propelled them into a likely best-of-seven semifinal against arch-rival Victoria.
"Perfect would have been a nice little win but we'll take the tie to get in," remarked Nanaimo's six-foot-10 transifion player Tyson Roe, who tallied two big goals on the night. "We wanted to play the way we knew we could play. We know (Church) is not only the best player on their team but one of the best in the league so we wanted to key on him. That didn't work so well in the first as he got a hat trick but we wanted to come in and play the way we could and we did that in the second and third and obviously in overtime."
The first period saw both teams garner a lead, with the visiting T-men striking first, then countering Church's first of the night with a tally by Jon Phillips. Burnaby came right back again, this time with Church scoring a pair within two minutes to make it 3-2 after 20 minutes.
In the second frame Phillips knotted the game just 1:29 in, before Tyler Digby put the Lakers back on top. Roe would recover a rebound and drive to the crease before beating Eric Penney to make it 4-4 with 20 minutes left -- or so.
in the third, Nanaimo bolted back in front on a tally from Conrad Chapman, where he took advantage of a Burnaby turnover and barrelled down the floor to score on a breakaway.
Church counted his fourth of the night, and Stevens gave the Lakers a 6-5 lead with 12 minutes left in the third. But the T-men didn't wilt, responding with a three-goal run that began with Colton Clark's stick-high shot at the crease, and continued with Roe rambling down the floor, shucking off Stevens and bowling over Matt Beers before cutting to the crease to give the visitors a 7-6 advantage.
Three minutes later, Cam Wengreniuk made it 8-6 for Nanaimo with a shot that just trickled past Penney with 9:33 remaining in regulation.
Showing no signs of panic, Burnaby methodically moved the ball and bided its time. Despite spending much of the second and third facing heavy checking from Roe and Chapman, Church found an opening with 2:39 remaining to cash in his fifth on the night and 43rd in 17 games, converting Digby's snappy behind-the-back setup.
But the clock soon started to loom large, and Nanaimo was doing a good job of keeping the Lakers at bay. It appeared like Burnaby would fall in regulation until they regained possession with 11 seconds to play. After a timeout and with Penney on the bench, a thorough passing play from Veltman to Stevens, who wired it on a one-timer from the right side with four seconds left, forced the issue into sudden death.
But even then, that wasn't enough to produce a happy ending for the home team.
"We were trying to get some of our guys out there together (in overtime late), and I think we hit a post there at the end when we were going four-on-three. How close is that?" sighed Burnaby coach Peter Tellis. "An inch away. ... It sucks. Obviously, we wanted to be in the playoffs, our goal from the start was to get in the playoffs. At times we played like that. It stinks. To get 21 points and not get in the playoffs --- in the last 10 years 19 points gets you in. It's tough."
Stevens noted a number of injuries weighed the team down -- Veltman missed the previous eight games with a separated shoulder, while last year's leading scorer Eli McLaughlin was limited to just four ineffective games, dressing Friday just to make a required one shift appearance to qualify for post-season play. A number of other players were felled by ailments along the way. But he also said in the end the team had it's chances, but just not the right bounces.
"The guys are disappointed we didn't find a way, but what can you do? said Stevens. "We didn't stop battling and there's no blaming anyone. A lot of times it comes down to the breaks you get and it's been like that all year. We had some tough luck this year -- the seasons that go right you need luck and the seasons that don't, well, there's a lot of things you can't control, like injuries.
"You just go out and play. ... I thought it was a good way to get into OT with the momentum and a chance to win. We had a couple looks in OT but just couldn't do it."
Also missing from the Laker lineup were imports Laszlo Henning and Zack Gould and 2019 second-overall draft pick Ryland Rees.
While Church struck for five goals, he was also the focal point for Nanaimo when it came to tightening the defence. The presence of guys like Roe and Chapman made it tougher for Church to distribute the ball as he usually does, causing a ripple effect in scoring chances.
"As kind of a leader and one of the more veteran guys you want to make sure you get more matchups. Digby is one of their bigger guys and I'm obviously a bigger guy so we were going with a match-up like that, and same with Chapman. Chapman did a phenomenal job taking on Digby and Church, especially in overtime," said Roe, who played with the National Lacrosse League's San Diego Seals this past winter.
Had Burnaby recorded one win over Nanaimo over their three meetings -- the T-men were 2-0 in their other two encounters, including a 9-7 decision nearly three weeks ago at the Copeland arena -- a tie would have been just fine. The squad also had winning records against both Maple Ridge and New West -- two playoff-bound teams -- but lost once to lowly Coquitlam at home en route to a 10-7-1 finish.
Still, despite rolling out 4-0 to start the season, parity would be a harbinger for one disappointed team. The margin of error was always razor thin.
"We knew that getting those early games would pay off later," mused Tellis. "The two points at the beginning of the season were worth the same at the end. We battled through a lot, we had a lot of injuries but the guys always found a way to go out to compete to the best of their ability. We played some good teams down the stretch and I'm proud of the guys how they hung in there very well. They battled."
Penney turned aside 51 shots, while Claxton stopped 52. It was also one of those rarest of games in the WLA where not one penalty was called.
For Roe, the match-up presented a serious challenge for a roster-depleted squad which was shy team captain Brody Eastwood and assistant captain Brandan Smith, as well as offensive snipers Sean Tyrell and Chase Fraser. However, the team that came on the trip worked like a determined unit on a mission. Contributing a pair of goals, with the second one an old-school power move that would have impressed Island sniper great Kevin Alexander, came as a bonus.
"I wasn't really expecting to get a shot there, I was actually going to run it to the side and pull it out. I kind of ran into Beers and I don't know if it was the hit or he tripped but I had an open look at the net and I had to take it and it ended going in. I expected it to be nothing and it ended up helping us."
