On Wednesday night the WLA action picks up once again as the 5-3 Langley Thunder take on the 1-7-1 Maple Ridge Burrards. Maple Ridge is coming off their first win of the season as they defeated the Burnaby Lakers 9-5 on Sunday night. While the Thunder had their 5 game winning streak broken by the Coqutilam Adanacs as they lost 7-6. Langley will want to win this game as a win will push them to first place in the league. Maple Ridge will look to continue their momentum after gaining their first win of the season.
The first time Maple Ridge and Langley met this season Langley came away with a 13-10 win. Maple Ridge lost this game due to their poor performance on the power play as they went 1 for 6 on the man advantage and due to getting off to a slow start and allowing Langley to build a 5-1 lead which they were unable to recover from. Langley’s success was due to the trio of Lewis Ratcliff, Athan Iannucci and Alex Turner who were able to break apart Maple Ridge’s defense and power Langley offense. Langley offensive power allowed Langley to walk away with the win.
Maple Ridge in order to win this game must get off to a better start as they can’t allow Langley to build a lead as Langley’s powerful offense and tough defense make it tough for teams to comeback. Maple Ridge will need to play solid defense like they did against Burnaby on Sunday night only allowing Burnaby to score 5 goals in the game. Maple Ridge also received a strong performance from goalie Drew Dickie who stopped 34 of 39 shots on net. Dickie will need to be on top of his game in order to stop Langley’s offense. The best chance to win this game for Maple Ridge will be to force Langley to take shots from the outside and prevent Langley from being able to spread out their defense. Maple Ridge will need to be stingy on defense and be careful not to leave any holes as Iannucci, Ratcliff or Turner will expose any gaps they find oin Maple Ridge’s defense. Maple Ridge will need to force turnovers and loose balls and try and control possession if they want to win. On offense Maple Ridge will look for Derek Lowe and Randy Daly to carry the offense and hopefully get their power play going. If Maple Ridge is able to play defense like they did Sunday night against Burnaby they will have a good chance of winning this game.
Langley in order to win will want to spread the ball around and use their plethora of offensive weapons. Langley’s offense is one of the deepest in the league consisting of players like Athan Ianucci, Lewis Ratcliff, Alex Turner, Brett Hickey and Joel McCready. Langley will want to spread the ball around and vary their attack in order to open holes in Maple Ridge’s defense and test Drew Dickie in net. If Langley is able to impose their will on offense they will be able to win this game. Langley will want to get out to a fast lead and force Maple Ridge to work from behind. Langley will also need Brodie MacDonald to continue his strong play in net. Langley will be in for a tough game but if they get their offense going early they have a very good chance of walking away from this game with a win.
The game starts at 7:45pm Pacific time and can be watched on Langley team site which is www.thunderlax.com.
