The Nanaimo Timbermen are creating history every time they step onto the floor in the 2022 Western Lacrosse Association final against the Langley Thunder.
The Timbermen swept the Coquitlam Adanacs in four games in the semifinals, to win their first playoff series since re-entering the WLA in 2005, sending a Nanaimo team to the WLA final for the first time since the 1968 watershed summer of the Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy assassinations and the Black Power salute at the Mexico City Olympics.
That’s a long time. Even at that, the Nanaimo Luckies were a one-off when the Victoria Shamrocks and other WLA franchises went pro in 1968 and 1969 in the National Lacrosse Association, so Nanaimo’s 1968 WLA championship and Mann Cup Canadian Senior A appearance comes with an asterisk.
The Harbour City is looking for its first legitimate trip to the Mann Cup since 1960 when the senior Kennedy brother became U.S. president.
Nanaimo previously played in the WLA from 1951 to 1961 and 1975 to 1981, with its lone Mann Cup championship in 1956 and second WLA title and Mann Cup appearance as runner-up to Port Credit, Ont., in 1960. The Timbermen never made the playoffs during their 1975 to 1981 tenure in the WLA.
Now comes a remarkable turnaround for a Nanaimo team that made the WLA playoffs only once in a 13-season stretch from re-entry in 2005 to 2018. This is truly the stuff of underdog dreams.
The Thunder lead the best-of-seven 2022 WLA final 1-0 following their 12-4 opening-game victory Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in which they scored six unanswered third-period goals to break open a 6-4 game following the second break. The second game is tonight at 7 p.m. at Frank Crane Arena in Nanaimo. The third game is Tuesday night at the LEC and the fourth game in Nanaimo on Thursday evening. If needed, the fifth game would be next Saturday at the LEC, the sixth game Aug. 29 in Nanaimo and the seventh game Aug. 31 at the LEC.
Langley, which got past the Victoria Shamrocks in six games in the semifinals, is potent. The Thunder boast the likes of National Lacrosse League pro Curtis Dickson, who in university led the Delaware Blue Hens to their only NCAA Final Four appearance, and is one of the most lethal quick-goal strikers in lacrosse history. Dane Dobbie plays pro for the San Diego Seals and was the 2018-19 NLL MVP. Robert Church, out of NCAA Div. 1 Drexel University, is an NLL all-pro selection and the defending WLA MVP from 2019, when he was with the Burnaby Lakers and was also WLA MVP in 2014 and 2017. Church is currently injured but could return to the series.
The opening-game victory, however, was keyed by Thunder goaltender Frank Scigliano’s 59 saves as Nanaimo outshot Langley 65-52. That shows the likes of Timbermen sniper Jon Phillips, signed recently by the Las Vegas Desert Dogs of the NLL, are getting their looks for Nanaimo. But they have to make them count on Scigliano, one of the best goalies in the business.
“It is always nice having a guy like Frank between the pipes. It makes the offence’s job really easy to win games,” Langley captain Connor Robinson said in a statement.
