Previous to last season, the Victoria Shamrocks and Nanaimo Timbermen had not met in a Western Lacrosse Association playoff series since 1957 when Elvis was All Shook Up.
Now they meet in consecutive years as their best-of-seven WLA semifinal series begins tonight in The Q Centre.
Game 2 will be Thursday night at Frank Crane Arena in the Harbour City, Game 3 Saturday night at The Q Centre and Game 4 next Monday at Frank Crane.
The Shamrocks beat the Timbermen, making their first playoff appearance in 11 seasons, in five games in last year’s WLA semifinals.
Both clubs came through last-game dramatics in the 2019 regular season. Victoria clinched the league crown Saturday in Coquitlam with a 9-8 victory over the last-place Adanacs (3-15). The Shamrocks and Maple Ridge Burrards tied at 12-6 but Victoria held the tie-breaker.
The Timbermen survived a nerve-rattling 8-8 draw Friday in Burnaby against the Lakers to gain fourth place. Both Nanaimo and Burnaby finished 10-7-1 but the tiebreaker went to the Timbermen.
The Burrards and third-place New Westminster Salmonbellies (11-7) will meet in the other semifinal series.
Burnaby, which started 4-0 and was in first place for much of the season, will miss the post-season for a second consecutive year, along with the Adanacs and Langley Thunder.
If you think the Timbermen are happy just to be here, guess again. Sure, they just squeezed into the post-season. But this is their second consecutive year in the playoffs, after more than a decade in the wilderness, and that constitutes a trend as far as they are concerned.
“It’s going to be a good series and both teams have their strengths,” said Nanaimo head coach Kaleb Toth.
“Victoria is a great team and we have to outwork them. But work hard is what we do. And we bring transition and speed.”
Not to mention a slurry of former Junior Shamrocks with perhaps chips on their shoulders.
“The Timbermen have Lower Island guys who say ‘the Shamrocks didn’t draft us,’ and now they have something to prove,” added Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes.
“There are a lot of personal angles to this Island rivalry.”
Victoria-raised players on the Timbermen include captain Brody Eastwood, assistant captain Brandan Smith, last season’s B.C. Junior A scoring champion Braylon Lumb, Mason Pynn, Jake Emms, David Byrne and Nate Wade.
Throw in former Shamrocks forward Evan Messenger. Even Toth is a former Mann Cup national championship player with the Shamrocks.
“They were down a long time before last season. But this Nanaimo group has been together for a bit now and knows each other,” said Heyes.
So much so that even when NLL pro star and Nanaimo top player Chase Fraser went down to a season-ending knee injury, his Timbermen teammates found a way around it.
“When Fraser went out, they just spread the scoring around,” noted Heyes.
Toth concurred: “We have been scoring by committee.”
Jon Phillips (27 goals, 69 points) and Colton Clark (22 goals, 58 points) picked up much of the scoring slack for the T-Men.
“Nanaimo is very dangerous in transition,” warned Heyes.
“As soon as [an opposition] shot is taken, they will gamble and are down the floor looking for the lead pass going the other way. That takes you out of your rhythm.”
That could be the key to solving Victoria’s fearsome defence — don’t give Shamrocks defencemen such as 2018 pro NLL defender of the year Graeme Hossack time to even set up.
Possession will prove critical in the series and Victoria has a big advantage in that regard in Tyler Burton, the best faceoff man in the sport.
Charles Claxton carries the load in goal for Nanaimo and he has been solidly consistent down the stretch. The Shamrocks answer with a tandem approach in the crease with Cody Hagedorn and Nanaimo-raised former Timbermen Peter Dubenski.
The Shamrocks won the regular-season series 2-1.
