Comfortably in first place in the Western Lacrosse Association standings, the Victoria Shamrocks kept their lines tight and freshly baited on Friday night.
The visiting Shamrocks slipped their hooks into the host Burnaby Lakers and reeled in an 8-6 victory at Bill Copeland Arena, improving Victoria’s league-leading record to 11-1-2 with just four games remaining in the regular season.
Victoria, which will play in Langley on Wednesday before closing out the regular season with three home dates, still needs one more win to clinch first place overall and already has a playoff berth solidified.
“It was definitely a solid effort. We answered the bell tonight and took it to them,” said Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes, whose team has allowed just 17 goals against the last three games.
“The defence has been doing a great job, for sure, so I’m very happy. Right from [goaltender] Matt Flindell all the way out,” added Heyes.
The Lakers opened the scoring as Casey Jackson beat Flindell 3:14 into the game, but the Shamrocks roared back with goals from Rhys Duch, Dhane Smith and Mike Pires to make it 3-1 11:46 into the opening frame.
Robert Church came back with two goals in a 54-second span to tie it at 3-3. The second goal came on the power play against Victoria’s league-worst penalty kill. That unit tightened up as the game went along, particularly at the end, when Victoria took two majors in the final eight minutes.
“There’s been some criticism of our short-handed opportunities, but all I can say tonight is they came through when we needed them,” said Heyes. “We have to make sure we kill them at the right time.
“Their offence is very good, so I’m happy with it. Our transition was good and I’m happy with a good, solid, all-around game.”
The Lakers finished 2-for-7 on the power play, but Victoria did tally once short-handed.
Chris Wardle, on a power play, and Corey Small restored the two goal lead by the end of the first period and Victoria went to the dressing room with a 5-3 advantage.
Scoring subsided in the second as Victoria’s Ryan Dilks (short-handed) and Burnaby’s Scott Jones exchanged the only goals of the middle period.
Small finished with two goals and three assists for the Shamrocks, while Ben McCullough also scored.
