BURNABY 14
VICTORIA 12
There will be a Game 7 鈥� gulp.
The Victoria Shamrocks were pushed into the deciding game on Friday night, dropping a 14-12 decision to the pesky Burnaby Lakers, who have battled back from a 0-3 deficit to even the best-of-seven Western Lacrosse Association semifinal series 3-3.
Burnaby can now become the first WLA team to battle back from that deficit and win since the New Westminster Salmonbellies rebounded to defeat the Coquitlam Adanacs 4-3 in 1980. The Bellies rattled off wins of 12-11, 13-12, 17-7 and 9-8 in overtime after losing the first three 17-16, 10-4 and 13-11.
New Westminster also blew a 3-0 series lead on the Brooklin Redmen in the 1985 Mann Cup as they represented the WLA in the national final.
Victoria will attempt to dodge that handle in Game 7 on Sunday at 6 p.m. at The Q Centre.
It will not be easy, as the Lakers have grabbed all the momentum in this series and on Friday rebounded from a 10-6 deficit 6:39 into the second period.
鈥淚t was a tale of two halves. The first half we did really well and we lost a little bit of our focus defensively and they capitalized on it,鈥� said dejected Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes, who was shocked in the way this loss occurred, outscored 8-2 over the last 33-plus minutes after such a great start.
鈥淲e worked awfully hard for our goals. Not enough adjustments were made to keep them at bay. We had energy up 10-6, but there was lots of game to come and they kept coming.鈥�
Twelve goals should have been more than enough for the Rocks, as Rhys Duch finished with four goals and three assists. Cory Conway, who returned from injury after a brutal hit from behind in Game 3, added a goal and six assists.
Corey Small and Chris Wardle had two goals and two assists each. Jon Harnett, Taylor Northway and Paul Brebber also scored and Jeff Shattler had four assists.
Robert Church had three goals and four assists for Burnaby and Tyler Digby recorded seven helpers. Eli McLaughlin and Josh Byrne each had hat tricks while Scott Jones and Dane Stevens had two goals apiece. Justin Salt had the other goal for the Lakers.
Victoria out-shot Burnaby 50-41, but once again Zak Boychuk outshone Adam Shute between the pipes.
鈥淲e feel like we have got their defence chasing us a little more and we are imposing our game on them, which is what we want to do,鈥� Stevens told Burnaby Now after the Game 5 win.
It鈥檚 all down to one game now.
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