VICTORIA 14
BURNABY 11
The Victoria Shamrocks are off to their fourth straight Western Lacrosse Association championship final.
Cory Conway scored three goals and added five assists as the Shamrocks averted what could have been a historic playoff loss with a solid 14-11 victory over the Burnaby Lakers in game seven on Sunday night at The Q Centre.
After winning the first three games in the series, a loss would have made Victoria the first Western Lacrosse Association team since 1980 to lose four straight after opening the series with three wins.
Instead, the injury-riddled club dug down deep in front of about 1,700 fans to advance to face the Maple Ridge Burrards in the league championship best-of-seven which is expected to begin Wednesday at the Colwood facility.
Corey Small, Rhys Duch, Jeff Shattler and Braylon Lumb all scored a pair each for the victors. Duch and Small also had three assists apiece. Chris Wardle, Tyler Burton and Ethan Garland also scored for the Shamrocks.
Lumb and Cole Pickup (who had three assists) turned in solid efforts for Victoria as junior call-ups, paying the price inside the Lakers' defence.
Goalie Adam Shute made 28 stops for the win.
Eli McLaughlin recorded a hat-trick while Scott Jones and Robert Church had a pair each for Burnaby. Josh Byrne had a goal and six helpers while Matt Beers, Tyler Digby and Shane O'Dougherty also scored for the Lakers, who battled back from an 11-4 deficit after two periods.
“It started off a little tentative, but I know I haven’t played in a Game 7 and neither have a lot of our guys,” said Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes, whose team led 6-2 after the first period. “Shuter got some big saves early, which was huge, and then the offence came alive. That builds that confidence and puts that doubt into their defence.
“We knew they wouldn’t go away, just like last game when we were up 10-6. We talked about it going into the third that they would try and draw us into penalties.”
