It wasn’t the start the Penticton Lakers were hoping for in Game 5.
Princeton Posse forward Kurtis Bond beat Austin Buzzell at 14:55 of the opening period, then two minutes later Alex Demchuk increased the lead to 2-0 for an eventual 3-2 win. The Lakers left the Princeton and District Arena trailing the best-of-seven series again. Only now the Lakers face elimination heading into Game 6.
“Story hasn’t changed,” said Lakers coach Robert Dirk, who has been named the 2011/12 Okanagan-Shuswap coach of the year. “We can’t get out of first five (minutes) without giving up a goal. Gave up a shorthanded (goal).”
What Dirk has seen in his group is they have developed more and more character, which allowed them to get back in. Derek Grimm setup Steven Killy to make it 2-1 in the opening five minutes. Midway through the period, the Posse made it 3-1 on a goal by Jaden Janzen. With less then three minutes remaining, Sam Nigg scored his first goal of the series. Despite firing 13 shots on Posse goalie Sky Buller in the third, he stopped each one enroute to a 27-save performance.
“We had chances in third to tie it,” said Dirk. “Our achilles is our lack of finish as a group. Now we are at Game 6. I thought it was going to go six or seven games. They don’t play the same in our building. All we have to do is win tonight, hold serve. Apply the lessons that we have learned and do it for 60 minutes.”
Dirk feels his team was the better club the last two periods. However, he repeated what he said before Game 5 in that he would like to see his team score first. He wants to see how the Posse responds.
“We aren’t going to go away,” said Dirk. “The start is going to be important tonight and hopefully Sunday.”
Puck drop today is at 7 p.m. Should there be a Game 7, it will take place in Princeton on Sunday.
