Coquitlam Adanacs had the host Timbermen right where they wanted them midway through the first period Saturday in Nanaimo.
Then the T-men put the Adanacs right where they wanted them -- in the penalty box.
Up 5-1 before the game was 11 minutes old, the A's allowed the referees and the T-men get the better of them, as Nanaimo went five-for-10 on the powerplay to prevail 13-9 in Western Lacrosse Association action.
The result dropped the A's to 5-6-0, while the T-men improved to 5-3-1.
"Sure, there were some calls [against us] but my guys didn't handle it well," said A's head coach Bob Salt, whose team, in comparison, was zero-for-four with the man advantage. "It's always hard over there [on Vancouver Island)... I don't know how to change that. We just have to handle it better."
League-leading scorer Scott Ranger rallied the T-men with four goals and one assist, giving him a staggering 53 points, including 30 goals, in just nine games. Ex-Adanac Cory Conway helped stick it to his old team by dishing out five assists for the winners, who out-scored Coquitlam 7-2 in the second period to take a 10-7 margin into the third.
The pair's production over-shadowed that of the A's top duo on the night of Kevin Olson and rookie Ryan Johnson, who notched three goals and five assists respectively.
"We started our like gangbusters but they [T-men] are a tough team, especially at home," Salt said.
"They pecked away at us and we kind of lost our momentum."
Dane Dobbie contributed two goals for the A's, who got singles from Mark Negrin, Damon Edwards, Jason Jones and Daryl Veltman, who added two assists.
Shots on goal were 49-47 for Nanaimo.
Next, the A's battle the now 7-3-0 Victoria Shamrocks in a pair of back-to-back home games the next two Saturdays at Poirier Sports Complex, both 7 p.m. starts.
"Those are two huge, huge games for us," Salt said.
RAG LINE: In B.C. Junior 'A' league play, the first-place Coquitlam Jr. Adanacs jumped to 15-3-0 on the season after crushing the Lakers 15-6 in Burnaby on Sunday. That same day, the host PoCo Saints were bounced 10-4 by the visiting Victoria Shamrocks to dip to 9-10-0, one night after they were spilled 13-10 by the Delta Islanders in Ladner.
