The Langley Rivermen were 10 minutes and 21 seconds away from defeating the Cowichan Valley Capitals Thursday night at the Langley Events Centre.

Over that final 10 minutes and change, the visitors from Vancouver Island sunk the Rivermen’s boat.

The ’Men dictated the play for most of the game, and led 2-1 before Cowichan Valley’s Logan Proulx tied the game at the 9:39 mark of the final frame.

The Capitals’ Keyler Bruce then notched the game winner with 1:41 remaining in regulation time.

Thursday marked ’Men’s best effort against the Caps this season, and if not for the stellar netminding of Cowichan Valley’s Brady Rouleau, the hosts would have come away with the win.

The Caps improved to 28-14-1-6 with the victory and are two points back of the Surrey Eagle in the battle for second place in the B.C. Hockey League’s Coastal Conference.

With a 16-27-1-3 record, Langley remains in last place in the eight team Coastal Conference. The Rivermen are a point back of Alberni Valley and Victoria.

Rivermen head coach Steve O’Rourke said the Capitals were lucky to come away with two points.

“We made a good team look very average,” O’Rourke said. “The guys were pretty disappointed after the game. We thoroughly outplayed them from start to finish. The three goals they scored were not good goals. The last two were screens – lucky goals that found their way into the back of the net. That should have been a 5-1, or 6-1 game for us.”

O’Rourke said the ’Men did everything right against Cowichan Valley.

“We played hard, and we finished our checks, and our forwards were skating well. It was a good game by the guys”

After a scoreless 12 minutes of play to open the game, Cowichan Valley’s Darrin Robak found the net with a point shot on a ’Caps’ powerplay.

The next shift saw the ’Men respond with a goal of their own courtesy of a beautiful wrist shot from the right wing off the stick of Peter McMullen.

The Rivermen owned the second period, outshooting the ’Caps 14-6.

They were rewarded with a powerplay goal from Darnell Dyck who collected a loose puck at the side of the net before lifting it over Rouleau to put the ’Men ahead by a 2-1 score. Mike Tebbutt did the spade work in front of the net, shoveling the puck towards Rouleau before Dyck finally put it home.

Things started off well for the Langley side in the final period, but then the hosts backed off for a few minutes as Proulx tied the game on a scramble in front of Rivermen goaltender James Barr.

Just when it looked as if the game was heading into overtime, Troy Paterson’s long shot from the right point hit Bruce in front of the net. The puck barely sneaked past Barr for the game winner.

Rouleau was named first star as he stopped 36 shots, while his counterpart Barr turned aside 26 pucks. The Rivermen should be proud on their effort and will definitely learn from this loss.

The ’Men had Friday off and will head to South Surrey Arena Saturday night to take on the Eagles. Game time is 7 p.m.

sports@langleyadvance.com