A lost week on and off the floor has at least left the Delta Islanders with a clearer picture heading to the final two weeks of the regular season in the B.C. Junior "A" Lacrosse League.
Any hopes of a second place finish and a favourable road towards the franchise's first-ever berth into the Minto Cup were dashed with losses to the New Westminster Salmonbellies and Victoria Shamrocks. The Islanders hung tough with the Bellies through two periods at Queen's Park Arena before dropping a 10-4 decision. The loss to the Shamrocks was of the gut-wrenching variety as the Island visitors scored eight power play goals to pull out a wild 17-16 victory on Saturday.
The Islanders (10-8) now sit in fifth place with three games remaining including tonight's rare mid-week home tilt against the Nanaimo Timbermen at 7 p.m.
They had hoped to shore up their line-up by acquiring goaltender Pete Dubenski and runner Mitch Parker from the Timbermen for the second straight year prior to the league's Canada Day roster deadline. However, Nanaimo has since backed out of a potential deal, leaving the Isles no choice but to move forward with what they have.
Head coach Shaun Springett's biggest concern is the back end. Cody Nass is well on his way to winning the league scoring title with 98 points in 17 games, including 10 against Victoria.
Teammate Eli McLaughlin sits in second while Evan Messenger, captain Mike Henry and Tyler Nett are among the top 25.
The Islanders must defend better in front of a rotation of goalies since number one starter Will Schwan has been lost for the entire season as he recovers from a series of concussions. The work began at Monday night's practice session.
"We have some guys who can handle man-to-man defence and some who can't," said Springett. "We have switched it up a bit to the point where we have one unit that will play man and the other will play zone. Hopefully we will be better and it will be tougher for our opponents to figure what we are doing on each possession.
"We just gave that game away against Victoria. We are the league's least penalized team so it's normally it's not an issue but we took some undisciplined penalties. The biggest thing was our key short man players were in the box for a lot of time leaving us with little options."
Springett was referring to a second period stretch that saw Taylor Northway, Cody Cowx and Mike Donaldson take a combined 17 minutes in penalties, resulting in lengthy two-man advantages for the Shamrocks and five power play goals.
Delta trailed 14-11 midway through the third period before rallying back to force overtime, including a goal from McLaughin with 46 seconds remaining.
Messenger had the biggest night of his young and promising junior career. The Ladner native, who began the season at the intermediate level, finished with 11 points, including five goals. After hosting Nanaimo, Delta doesn't return to action until July 4 with a key game in Langley against the third place Thunder before hosting the front-running Coquitlam Adanacs two nights later to close out league play.
