The Burnaby Lakers failed to bring it in their rematch with the Maple Ridge Burrards at home on Friday.
The senior A Lakers trailed the Burrards every step of the way at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre en route to a 9-7 loss in the Western Lacrosse Association.
Burnaby's offence to defence transition was poor, with too many dropped passes, said Lakers head coach Bob Johnston of the team's three-to-one ratio in turnovers in the game. "After that, it just turned into shoot-a-rama."
The Lakers managed to tie the score four times through the first two periods, but after first star Curtis Dickson's second of three scores in the game and Creighton Reid's shorthanded counter in the final 20 seconds of the middle frame, Burnaby never appeared like it would get back in it.
Rookie righthander Scott Jones's fifth of the year in the final two minutes gave the Copeland faithful a brief hope, but an unassisted tally seconds later by Nate Tarrant, with Burnaby goalie Dan Lewis out of the net for a sixth attacker, settled the issue. Lewis stopped 43 shots in the Burnaby goal.
Second star Dane Stevens led the Lakers with two goals and two assists.
"That's where we have to get more controlling," added Johnston. "(Maple Ridge) was in rhythm and we weren't.
"It's a fun, competitive league and everyone's in the hunt. But you have to show up, and that's what it is - consistency."
Up until last Friday, Burnaby was beating the teams beneath them in the standings, but was still waiting for the opportunity to upset one of the top-three teams.
That chance will come this week when the Lakers meet the first-place New Westminster Salmonbellies in a home-and-home series this Thursday at Queen's Park Arena and Friday at the Copeland centre.
"I believe in this group, they're young and talented. But time and possession is vital. Every (team) has skill and good goaltending, so there has to be more to their game and we get that," Johnston said, adding the final three weeks of play will be interesting for the fans.
"It's all on the table, we just have to get into it."
Thursday's and Friday's games are both 7:45 p.m. starts.
