VICTORIA 11
MAPLE RIDGE 8
(Series tied 2-2)
It鈥檚 down to a best-of-three with home-floor advantage clearly not meaning a thing in the 2016 Western Lacrosse Association championship final.
For the fourth straight game, the visiting squad came out victorious. This time, the Victoria Shamrocks pulled out an 11-8 win over the Maple Ridge Burrards in a late-starting game Tuesday at Planet Ice to knot the best-of-seven series at 2-2.
Game 5 is tonight at 7:45 at The Q Centre where the Shamrocks lost Games 1 and 3 of the series.
鈥淲e鈥檇 love to win at home. You have to come with a different work rate and effort when you go on the mainland. We鈥檒l lick our wounds and come back ready to go,鈥� Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes insisted prior to the late-starting contest, held up by 25 minutes due to traffic snarls.
The offence showed up in time, however, as Corey Small opened the scoring quickly for the Shamrocks, just 25 seconds in, with his first of four goals on the night. Chris Wardle made it 2-0 at 4:52 of the first period and Small upped that to 3-nil at 7:23 before Ben McIntosh and Connor Goodwin finally replied for the Burrards, 2:05 apart 13:13 into the first period. The league鈥檚 most valuable player, Rhys Duch, and McIntosh traded goals and the visitors took a 4-3 lead into the first intermission.
It鈥檚 been a strange pattern of wins as no home team has managed to pull away 鈥� strange in that both buildings are difficult on any visitor.
鈥淎bsolutely, it鈥檚 hard to win in this building,鈥� Burrards head coach Rob Williams said after the 14-11 overtime win in Game 3 on Sunday at The Q.
鈥淏ut that鈥檚 a really resilient, talented group over there and I will not disrespect that team,鈥� said Williams. 鈥淭hey have the ability to light it up every night. They have a great offence and experienced guys who have been there and I don鈥檛 think they鈥檙e going away.鈥�
He was right, but neither are the Burrards, who received three goals from McIntosh, a pair from Riley Loewen and singles by Gord Phillips and Owen Barker on Tuesday. Duch and Wardle each had two goals for Victoria as Heyes went back to Adam Shute in goal. Braylon Lumb, Jeff Shattler and Jon Harnett (empty net) also tallied for the Shamrocks.
CLOVER POINTS: The Six Nations Chiefs defeated the Peterborough Lakers 8-6 on Tuesday, but still trail the Major Series Lacrosse final 3-2, with the winner playing host to the Mann Cup. The Chiefs will play host to Game 6 on Thursday.
