A Burnaby Lakers loss has locked the Langley Thunder into a playoff position.
The senior A Thunder learned their post-season fate on Thursday night as the Lakers lost 9-7 to the New Westminster Salmonbellies.
Langley (9-8) closes the regular season with a game in Victoria against the Western Lacrosse Association-leading Shamrocks (13-4) on July 31.
Win or lose, Langley will finish the regular season in third spot and face the Salmonbellies in the best-of-seven playoff series. New Westminster won the season series 2-1, winning 6-5 and 8-7 while the Thunder won 8-6.
But the Thunder’s result against Victoria has a huge bearing on the rest of the playoff field.
A Victoria victory would leave Langley, Maple Ridge and Burnaby all with identical 9-9 records, including 3-3 against one another in common games. The next tiebreaker is goal differential in those games and the Thunder were +5, so they would finish third. Maple Ridge would get the last playoff berth with a -4 differential, compared to Burnaby’s -9.
But if Langley defeats Victoria to finish 10-8, the Lakers would get the post-season spot having won the season series 2-1 over Maple Ridge.
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The Thunder’s regular season finale also has some personal implications.
Langley’s Pat Saunders is locked in a three-way race for the WLA scoring title.
Saunders has 70 points, which is tied for second with Victoria’s Rhys Duch. Both players are chasing the Shamrocks’ Corey Small who has 72 points.
Saunders is also in contention for the goal-scoring lead with 32 goals, three back of Maple Ridge’s Ben McIntosh. Victoria’s Jesse King and Duch are also in the race with 31 goals, while Small would need a monster game as he sits with 28 goals.
