The South Okanagan Flames were seven minutes away from opening the Thompson Okanagan Junior Lacrosse League season with a win over the Vernon Tigers.
However, a penalty at the wrong time coupled with fatigue allowed the Tigers, who took silver at the provincial championships last season, to a 10-8 win over the home side at Memorial Arena Monday night. Fatigue from killing a penalty drained the Flames, who allowed two shorthanded goals.
“We played good for 50 minutes. We let up a little bit in the last 10 minutes of the game, which sucks but we’ll learn from that,” said Flames captain Kade MacLeod. “They scored two shorthanded four-on-three goals on us, that should never happen. I think it was a mental lapse.”
Offensively, the Flames were led by Mitch Brodt, who scored six goals. He will miss the next game after being assessed a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct on a hit late in the game that resulted in Tiger Kyle Dennis getting attention from the team’s medical staff for a few minutes before being helped off the floor. Also scoring for the Flames were Chris Pond and MacLeod.
“I think our guys played great except for the last five minutes of the game,” said Flames coach Kevin Thompson. “What killed us and it was a one goal game the whole game. We didn’t put in the whole game.”
While the Flames did an excellent job on one of their penalty kills midway through third period, it left the players drained for the power-play. Thompson said that makes it hard to build momentum.
“Both those teams played a great game. It was a clean, fast game,” said Thompson. “They executed beautiful and got two shorthanded goals on us. That deflates you right there.”
MacLeod added that Dean Grimm played great in goal for the Flames. “I thought we outplayed them for 55 minutes,” said MacLeod, adding that one thing they can improve on is picking up loose balls.