It's a best-of-three series now, with momentum in their favour.
But the Victoria Shamrocks are taking nothing for granted after evening their Western Lacrosse Association best-of-seven semifinal at 2-2 via a thrilling 11-8 overtime victory over the Coquitlam Adanacs Sunday night on the Mainland.
Clawing their way back from an 0-2 series deficit, the Shamrocks have regained home-court advantage and play host to the Adanacs at Bear Mountain Arena in Game 5 tonight at 7: 45, with Game 6 back in Coquitlam on Wednesday.
Derek Lowe tied the game for the Shamrocks with 1.9 seconds remaining in the third period Sunday and Corey Small, with his fourth and fifth goals of the evening, provided the OT heroics.
"It comes down to, yes, we're competing hard, but we can't truly be happy," said Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes. "Yeah, we have momentum now, but it's just like they did in the first two games.
"We've had to work hard to get where we're at right now, but we still have two more wins to go."
Victoria played Sunday's game without starting netminder Matt Flindell, who was injured late in Friday's 9-6 Shamrocks win when Jason Jones purposely ran him. A melee ensued but Flindell left the game due to injury.
Chris Levis started Sunday's game in goal for the Shamrocks and made 45 saves, including all seven in overtime.
Jones, who escaped further discipline despite the hit on Flindell in Game 3, scored two for the Adanacs, almost adding insult to injury. Dane Dobbie, with a pair, Daryl Veltman, Kevin Olson, Damon Edwards and Ryan Johnson also scored for Coquitlam.
Karsen Leung with a pair, Matt Lyons, Ryan Benesch and Mitch McLaren, with an empty-netter in OT, replied for the Shamrocks, who also received seven assists from Jeff Shattler.
Nick Rose made 46 saves in goal for Coquitlam.
Victoria's Chet Koneczny and Coquitlam's Andrew McBride were both suspended for Game 4 due to an altercation following Friday's game, but Jones went unscathed.
Both teams came out cautiously in Sunday's outing. It was tied 2-2 after one period and after taking an early 3-2 lead in the second, the Shamrocks fell behind 6-3.
"At that point I took a timeout and told them that their season was on the line. That we needed a stop and to start scoring. It took a little while, but we got to it," said Heyes, whose troops outscored Coquitlam 4-2 in the third, including Lowe's last-second dagger.
