Winless in the first two regular-season games isn’t exactly what Victoria Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes envisioned for his two-time Western Lacrosse Association champion club.
But the veteran coach and former player isn’t about to panic after back-to-back weekend losses to the Nanaimo Timbermen. In fact, he’ll use it to prove a point to his 0-2 Shamrocks.
“No, it’s not the start I wanted, but adversity is a good thing. This is more than a little adversity and it’s a good wake-up call,” Heyes said of Sunday’s 12-9 overtime loss in Nanaimo after a season-opening 8-6 setback at home to the Timbermen on Friday.
“I thought we played a much better game on Sunday, there was better pace to start the game and we dictated early,” he said of a 2-0 lead, nine minutes into the game.
That evaporated with Nanaimo’s three-goal stretch in four minutes by the 17:32 mark of the first period. But Scott Ranger collected his second goal for Victoria to send the teams into the dressing rooms tied at 3-3.
It went south in period two as the Timbermen blanked the Shamrocks 3-0, but Victoria stormed back with six goals in the third and actually led 9-8 before Randy Jones tied it up with 4:46 remaining in the third.
Cody Bremner, Mac Johnstone and Mitch Parker all potted goals in overtime for the Nanaimo win.
“We’re still falling into mental errors,” said Heyes, who should have some of the cavalry coming this week with the Calgary Roughnecks’ loss to the Edmonton Rush in the National Lacrosse League semifinal on Saturday night.
“We’re still playing a lot of our depth guys and hopefully they’re learning from their mistakes,” said Heyes, who isn’t about to panic. “Everybody had high expectations that we would be in mid-season form, but it’s not what you do now, rather what you do as you near the playoffs.”
Heyes did, remarkably, have Karsen Leung in his roster Sunday, one of five Roughnecks now available to the Shamrocks.
“He sent me a text about 30 minutes after they lost their deciding game [Saturday] and said he was in [for Sunday],” Heyes said of Leung.
“He played 140 minutes of lacrosse [two full games and two 10-minute extras] in two days. That’s the mindset where we all need to be,” Heyes added of Leung’s dedication. “A team that works hard can beat a team of talent. For us, we’re still not working smart enough.”
Victoria’s lineup will be bolstered by Greg and Jon Harnett, Daryl Veltman and Dan MacRae, all of the Roughnecks. Jesse King is expected this week and Dan Dawson should arrive in two weeks. Tyler Hass is also battling his way back from injury, while goaltender Aaron Bold and Ryan Dilks remain with the Rush as they face the Toronto Rock in the NLL championship final.
Bremner led the way with three goals and three assists for the Timbermen, while Jones and Johnstone had a pair of goals each.
Ranger, Corey Small, Rhys Duch and Cory Conway all had three points each for Victoria (Small and Ranger with two goals each). Mitch Jones, Chris Wardle and Derek Lowe also scored.
The Shamrocks will try to snap the losing streak against Burnaby at The Q Centre on Friday at 7:45 p.m.
mannicchiarico@timescolonist.com
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