It may just be the biggest goal in the short history of the Langley junior A Thunder.
Sean Lundstrom scored with less than four minutes remaining — after Langley had blown a four-goal lead — to earn the Thunder a 9-9 draw against the Delta Islanders.
Goaltender Keenan Lambright stopped all five shots in the 10-minute overtime period, and finished with 35 saves.
Adam Will, Brandon Bull and Reegan Comeault scored two goals apiece, and Max Weselowski and Eric Ransom had one goal each.
Ransom also had three assists.
And while a victory would have been nice, the single point clinched a post-season berth for the Langley lacrosse squad for the first time.
The Thunder were hosting Delta on Thursday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley’s B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League regular season finale.
While his players were happy post-game, coach Chris Levis said he didn’t think what they had accomplished had completely sunk in for a lot of the team.
The single point left the Thunder with a 6-14-1 record and 13 points, three ahead of the seventh-place Burnaby Jr. Lakers who have one game remaining. The Lakers held the tiebreaker if the two teams had wound up finishing tied.
Langley recovered from an 0-4 start to the season, but really seemed to turn things around when Levis was promoted from assistant to head coach following the resignation of
“I think after the slow start, the guys just settled down,” he said. “We have a lot of talent, a lot of potential in the room and the guys realized that.
“It was not a question of us not having talent or work ethic, it was the guys having a little confidence and swagger.”
“I think this is an important point in the juncture for this group,” said general manager Brock Rose, who began assembling the roster three years ago and targeting kids from Langley, Maple Ridge and Abbotsford.
Rose was especially impressed that his big players came up with clutch performances when the team really needed them to do so.
Over the past three years, the Thunder won a combined four games.
And the good thing is, Langley only loses two players from its roster next season, while some of their competition loses anywhere from eight to 12.
The core of the roster still has two years of junior eligibility remaining.
“These weren’t supposed to be our best years,” Rose said. “(But) we feel very strongly in this group we have.”
Langley awaits its first round opponent, which will be either Victoria or Delta. The teams will play a best-of-three playoff series.
