The Nanaimo Timbermen ensured they get the playoff series they wanted most.
The senior A T-men will play the Victoria Shamrocks in the Western Lacrosse Association semifinals after Nanaimo won its regular-season finale.
The Timbermen ended off with an easy 13-5 victory against the Burnaby Lakers on Saturday at Frank Crane Arena. The T-men led 11-1 at one point midway through the third.
“We wanted that Island rivalry, so we did our best to win this game, for sure,” said Colton Clark, T-men alternate captain. “We put our foot on the pedal a little and tried to run up the score and make sure that we were going to get that win.”
Clark said the game was a little bit sloppy, but was beneficial in that it gave the Timbermen a chance to practise parts of their game with an eye to the post-season.
“We tried to touch on stuff that we’re going to work on in playoffs and I thought we did a good job of executing it, for the most part,” he said.
Kaleb Toth, Timbermen coach, said guys didn’t play a full 60 minutes on Saturday, but did enough to get the win they wanted. He said while it will be special to face the Shamrocks in the playoffs, the T-men weren’t overly concerned about playoff matchups.
“If we win a round we’re playing the other team, right? So it doesn’t really matter,” he said.
Clark was first star with two goals and five assists and Jon Phillips had three goals and two assists. Evan Messenger added a goal and three helpers and Tyson Roe scored twice. Drew Belgrave, Cam Wengreniuk, Brody Eastwood, Baden Boyenko and Chase Fraser were other scorers and Mike DiGirolamo earned the win, stopping 32 of the 34 shots he faced.
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Nanaimo Timbermen win their 10th game, setting a new franchise record. The last time a Nanaimo senior A lacrosse team had double-digit wins was 1962, when the Nanaimo Labatts won 13 games in a 32-game regular-season (Source: Wamp's Bible of Lacrosse)… pic.twitter.com/PErcJUVy3i
— Greg Sakaki (@BulletinSports) July 29, 2018
Phillips finishes the regular season as Nanaimo’s top scorer with 53 points and Fraser finishes first in goals with 29. Conrad Chapman had a team high 48 penalty minutes. The Timbermen established a franchise record with 10 wins.
Look for a playoff preview Tuesday at www.nanaimobulletin.com/sports.
GAME ON … The Timbermen and Shamrocks play Game 1 of their best-of-seven series Wednesday, Aug. 1, at the Q Centre in Victoria. The teams will play in Nanaimo on Friday, Aug. 3 at 7 p.m. at Frank Crane Arena.
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