Jonathon Wittmeier almost shut out the Port Moody Thunder Saturday afternoon at the A2 provincial lacrosse championship.
A seeing-eye shot by Thunder forward Ryan McBeth late in the game broke up that possibility.
With 3:32 seconds left in the third period and Wittmeier's Prince George Posse riding high with a 4-0 lead, McBeth snuck behind enemy lines and snapped a low shot into the Posse net.
Wittmeier's view of McBeth's flick of the wrists was somewhat obscured after he lost one of his contact lenses earlier in the period and neglected to inform the officials. Less than a minute later, the nearsighted Wittmeier had trouble focusing on Rhys Blake's hard shot from 20 feet away on a delayed penalty. All of a sudden, with still 2 1/2 minutes on the click, the Thunder was threatening.
That left it up to Alex Nimmo to relieve the pressure . The 14-year-old Posse forward, who'd been a buzzsaw all game, creating scoring chances and dishing out crunching hits, raced to the far end of the floor and coralled a big rebound after a shot at an empty Port Moody net which bounced off the end boards. His second goal of the game came with 52 seconds left and Posse captain Doug Porter added to the total with his second of the game in a 6-2 victory which clinched first place in Pool B for the Posse.
Wittmeier, 16, was spectacular in the Prince George nets, rarely getting caught out of position and masterfully taking away the shooting angles while keeping his large body square to the net. The number of shots wasn't recorded but he made at least a dozen great saves in the first two periods to keep the game scoreless.
"Johnny (Wittmeier) played very well for us and we need that from him every game, he's been playing good for us all tournament," said Nimmo. "We played B lacrosse all year and I think we should have been playing A2, from the way we've been winning this weekend in A2. I think we're the top seed in the whole tournament."
Nimmo gets plenty of floor time on the Posse's third line and the coaches reward his energetic efforts with penalty-killling duty. He scored the Posse's third goal nine minutes into the third period with a superb fake on goalie Ryan Popkey, the player of the game for Port Moody.
"I'd been shooting far side all game and I didn't score and my coach (Don Wittmeier) told me go short side and when I went short side, it went in," said Nimmo.
Jake McIntosh and Andrew Heitman also scored for the Posse, which opened the eight-team tournament Friday by defeating Kamloops 9-4 and Coquitlam 10-6.
The Posse will play Nanaimo (2-1) in a crossover semifinal tonight at 8 at Kin 3. The other A2 semifinal pits Port Moody (2-1) against Port Coquitlam (2-1). The winners meet for gold Sunday at 11:15 a.m. at Kin 1.
The gold medal game schedule for Sunday is as follows: C final --9 a.m.; B final: 10;30 A.M., A2 final, 11:15 a.m., and A1 final: 1 p.m. Al championship games are at Kin 1.
