The Victoria Shamrocks must now win out, against the patient and methodical New Westminster Salmonbellies in the 2017 Western Lacrosse Association final, to keep alive the dream of a franchise 10th Mann Cup national title.
The Salmonbellies defeated Victoria 9-8 Friday night in overtime at the Q Centre to take a 3-1 stranglehold on the best-of-seven WLA final, heading into Game 5 Sunday night at Queen’s Park Arena in New Westminster.
If required, Game 6 would be Tuesday at the Q Centre and Game 7 next Friday in New Westminster.
“We still have to get to four wins, just like they do,” said a philosophical Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes, before acknowledging: “But we have zero room for error.”
If it was the last hurrah for the season at the Q Centre, at least it was a kinetic one. The crowd of 2,044 created a din and was on edge in a classic and compelling night of playoff lacrosse.
Trailing 8-4 heading into the third period, Victoria brought it level at 8-8 with a dramatic shorthanded goal by Rhys Duch with 18.5 seconds remaining in regulation time. But the lone goal of the 10-minute overtime period came from Logan Schuss of the Salmonbellies at 6:24 after an errant Duch pass bounced over the boards to change possession.
Victoria wouldn’t have been in overtime without Duch, one of the greatest snipers in Shamrocks history, and his three goals on a four-point night.
“We needed a little more in overtime but couldn’t quite get it,” said Corey Small of the Shamrocks, the league scoring champion, who had a goal and three assists.
“Now it’s do or die. But we’ve all been in this scenario before in our careers, from junior days on up. We have the character in that room to do this [rally to win the series].”
It was a case of no Priolo, big problemo, for Victoria.
The Shamrocks built a 3-0 lead. But missing Steve Priolo, one of the best back-end players in the sport, they seemed defenceless in the face of a steady and confident Salmonbellies counterattack that scored six unanswered goals to make it 6-3 by 13:08 of the second period. Priolo was sitting out a one-game suspension.
Kevin Crowley, a six-foot-four New England Black Wolves NLL pro, led the ’Bellies with three goals and three assists to be named first star. The second star was Duch and the third star Alexis Buque, the twitch-quick New Westminster netminder, who was a standout in making 47 saves.
Scoring once each for Victoria were Joe Resetarits, Tyler Hass and Jake Archdekin.
Unforced, undisciplined penalties killed Victoria’s momentum on several occasions.
“We have to limit the bad penalties … that’s the mental aspect of the game,” Heyes said.
The winner of the series will host the Mann Cup national championship series against the winner of the Ontario final between the Peterborough Lakers and Six Nations Chiefs. The Lakers lead that series 2-0.
The Shamrocks last won the Mann Cup in 2015 and have nine national titles in total. The Salmonbellies have won a record 24 Mann Cups since 1913, although not since 1991.
The Shamrocks are in the WLA final for a fifth consecutive year, having won in 2013, 2014 and 2015 before losing to the Maple Ridge Burrards last year.
New Westminster last won the WLA title in 2010, the last of a three-year run as league champions.
