WLA Play-Off Action – Semi_Final’s

The Langley Thunder Lewis Ratcliff managed to nail a 6 point game on 5 goals and 1 assist to lead them to 9-6 win over the Lakers Friday night at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.

The win gives them a 2-0 series lead in the best of seven series as they travel back to the LEC for game three Tuesday with the face-off set for 7:45pm.

Langley got off to fast 3-0 start in the opening period on goals by Ratcliff (a pair) and Belton getting the lone marker capitalizing on what some might call poor defence by the Lakers.

This was their best period of the series to date out shooting the Lakers 13-5 having “keeper” McDonald kept the red light off.

The second period saw McCready and Ratcliff put two more on the board, only to be squeezed between a lone marker by Lakers Justin Salt.

Burnaby’s Dhaliwal made the game somewhat more respectable by getting one and cutting the lead to 5-2.

The Thunder rebounded on a goal from Iannucci extending the lead to 6-2.

Burnaby rebounded and got one making it 6-3 in the final minute. Langley called a T/O and managed to get the ball to Ratcliff at 19:58 having him pop in his 4th goal of the night extending the lead to by four goals (7-3) heading to period three.

Ratcliff got his 5th at 5:09 extending the Thunder’s lead to 8-3.

Burnaby’s Trevor Moore beat McDonald making it 8-4 only to have Iannucci grab his second of the game with 4:39 remaining. The Lakers did get a pair of late goals from, but too little to late! Shots were 37-35 for the Lakers as “keeper” Brodie McDonald finished with 31 saves to secure the win for the Thunder.

Burnaby’s Dane Lewis finished with 26 saves on the night and find themselves behind in the series 2-0 to the defending WLA Champions.

They face a must win situation on Tuesday (August 7^th) to get back in the series or fall behind 3 games.

Other Series :

The other series see’s the Adanacs and square off against the Island Boy’s – Victoria Shamrocks. Game one is August 4th at Bear Mountain at 7:45pm.

This is game one of the best of seven semi’s with game 2 in Coquitlam on Wednesday August 8^th at 7:45pm.