The regular season is OK for moral victories. But only real ones matter in the shorter crucible of the playoffs.
The fourth-seed Victoria Shamrocks gave the top-seed New Westminster Salmonbellies all they could handle in the first game, won 11-9 by the Salmonbellies, of their best-of-five Western Lacrosse Association playoff semifinal series on Wednesday night at Queen’s Park Arena.
“We had every opportunity to win that game,” said Shamrocks head coach Mike Simpson.
“But you either do or you don’t.”
The Shamrocks didn’t.
“Yet it gave us a bit of confidence going into Game 2,” said Simpson.
That is tonight at 6:30 in The Q Centre. The third game is Wednesday at Queen’s Park Arena. If required, the fourth game would be Aug. 11 at The Q Centre and the fifth game Aug. 13 at Queen’s Park Arena.
“We just have to clean up a few things,” said Simpson.
The Victoria plan is for its youthful players to run the floor against the veteran-laden Salmonbellies, something the counter-attacking Shamrocks do well. But even at that tempo, possession matters.
“We got too race horsey and didn’t value the ball as much as we should have,” said Simpson.
Victoria led 4-2 after the first period with thoughts of a Game 1 upset dancing in their heads heading to the dressing room.
“Then we began forcing some things in the second period, allowing them [Salmonbellies] to go on a five-goal run.”
The other best-of-five semifinal series is a reprise of the 2022 WLA final and continued Thursday night at Frank Crane Arena in Nanaimo with the third-seed Timbermen hosting the second-seed Langley Thunder. The series opened Tuesday night at the Langley Events Centre with the Thunder defeating the Timbermen 14-6. The third game is Tuesday night at the LEC.
The winners of the semifinal series will advance to the best-of-seven WLA final series beginning Aug. 16. The WLA champion will host the best-of-seven Mann Cup national championship series against the champion of Ontario’s Major Series Lacrosse beginning Sept. 8.
Meanwhile, the Timbermen and Shamrocks landed two players each on the WLA all-star teams.
Adam Wiedemann of Nanaimo, also a National Lacrosse League pro with the Georgia Swarm, and Drew Belgrave of the Salmonbellies, a NLL pro with the San Diego Seals, are the first-team defencemen. WLA points scoring-champion and NCAA Div. 1 Drexel University grad Zach Manns of the Timbermen, Curtis Dickson of the Thunder and league goals-leader Haiden Dickson from the Salmonbellies are the first-team forwards and Frank Scigliano of the Thunder the goaltender.
Two Victoria rookies made the second team with Cam Dunkerley in goal and Bennett Smith on defence.
“The league is talent-laden and it’s hard for young guys to crack into the all-star line-ups but both Dunkerley and Smith have been exceptional this season,” said Simpson.
Rounding out the second all-star team are defenders Brett Mydske from New Westminster and Bobby Kidd from Langley and forwards Robert Church and Dane Dobbie of the Thunder and Jacob Dunbar from the Burnaby Lakers.
