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Lakers rain on Thunder in WLA start
By Tom Berridge, Burnaby Now sports
In the case of the Burnaby Lakers, a lack of practice made them perfect enough.
The senior A Lakers opened the Western Lacrosse Association season with all guns blazing and outlasted the Langley Thunder 15-14 at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre Friday.
With a short bench, few quality practices behind them and at least 10 players still to report, Burnaby got big-time efforts from top draft picks Kevin Olson, Curtis Hodgson, Jordan Cornfield and Brad Dairon, back from a firefighter's one-year probation, to outscore the former North Shore franchise in the league opener.
Olson, picked up fourth overall by the Lakers in the 2004 WLA junior draft, scored four goals and led all scorers with nine points in his season debut.
Thirty-three-year-old Burnaby captain Ian Paterson added eight points, including a pair of first-period goals.
"He (Olson) is a player," remarked Paterson after the game. Paterson coached Olson when the first-round draft pick was an 11-year-old.
With 13 former Burnaby juniors suiting up for the senior Lakers Friday, Paterson, a former junior Laker himself, says the game is getting more fun to play as the team gets better and younger.
Olson made good on 40 per cent of his shots, scoring his first goal at 4:46 of the opening period, when he beat a defender to the inside and scored in close on Thunder keeper Ryan Williams.
Cornfield, Burnaby's third-round steal in this year's lottery, potted a pair of tallies. His first of the year tied the game at 10-10 late in the second period.
Hodgson, a No. 4 overall pick by the Lakers last year, also scored twice on just three shots, tallying back-to-back markers for Burnaby in a seesaw second period.
Dairon, another fourth overall pick of Burnaby's in 1999, scored four times on six shots in his first game back with the Lakers since August 2002.
Dairon's third and fourth goals of the game, sandwiched between Cornfield's second tally, came in a three-minute burst in the third period that put the Lakers three goals up and in control of the match.
"You know, the whole thing worked out perfect," Dairon said. "The last year I played, I was feeling like I was getting burnt out. The year out made me open my eyes to how much I loved the game and getting out with the guys. I was taking it a bit for granted," said the former 60-goalgetter as a final-year junior.
"I've been just trying to get out there and play - set picks and get open - doing the little things."
Those little things helped give the Lakers a 4-3 lead, when Dairon cut across the net on the shortman and fired a wicked behind-the-back shot past Williams in the opening period.
Dairon's hat trick goal put Burnaby ahead again, 12-11, early in the third period.
Three minutes later, the rangy lefthander made it four, giving the home team its biggest lead of the game 14-11 with 13 minutes still to play.
Burnaby held off Langley the rest of the way with Andrew Leyshon stopping 17 of his 36 stops in the final period.
Spencer Martin, Burnaby's No. 3 pick overall in 2002, scored the game-winner, picking up the ball after a faceoff at centre floor and walking in alone for an unassisted score.
"People keep telling me we look offensively challenged on paper, but I think we have a lot of goal scorers," Dairon said, adding his positive attitude towards the team extends all the way into the playoffs.
"My goal is to always win the whole thing. No matter how bad a team is, the object is to win. I think we have as good a chance as there is in the west.
"That is the kind of attitude you have to have. I think we can win it all and not just be content with getting in the playoffs."
Burnaby plays its next six games on the road. The Lakers next home game is June 11 against Coquitlam.
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