PoCo Saints played plenty well enough defensively to win Wednesday but, offensively, they deserved not to.
Then again, neither did the Langley Thunder.
In fact, the Thunder relied on a so-so shot off a Saints' rare defensive miscue to score the winning goal with 29 seconds left to prevail 5-4 in a B.C. Junior 'A' lacrosse league playoff game at Langley Events Centre.
The win gave the fourth-place Thunder a 1-0 lead over the fifth-place Saints in the best-of-three quarter-final series, heading into last night's (Thursday, after The Tri-City News deadline) second game at PoCo Rec Centre. A third and deciding game, if needed, would got Saturday back in Langley.
"It was one of those goals where you go, 'Oh man, where did that come from?'" Saints head coach Nick Delmonico said of the deciding marker.
The Thunder led 4-2 with fewer than three minutes remaining when PoCo's Garrett Chan struck for back-to-back markers 40 ticks apart to even the score.
But with overtime looming, the Thunder's Nick Stone tallied just 1:24 after Chan had tied the game to bury the Saints.
"We have been stressing defence all year and we played very well defensively," said Delmonico, whose goalie Garrett Span was forced to make only 25 saves. "When you hold another team to five goals in a game you should win. Our offence needs to step up a little."
That could well happen, as Saints' leading scorer Nash Harrison was unavailable to play Wednesday but was due to suit up in Game 2.
Andrew Bromley and Cory Takahara also scored for the Saints, who out-shot Langley by a 36-32 margin.
