The Victoria Shamrocks got their point across early and then hung on for a 9-8 win in Game 1 of their best-of-seven Western Lacrosse Association semifinal series against the Burnaby Lakers on Friday night.
Casey Jackson scored his first of four goals just 52 seconds into the game at Bill Copeland Arena 鈥� also known as The Swamp 鈥� and added his second at 2:10 before captain Corey Small upped the lead to 3-0 less than two minutes later.
It ended up as a tight victory for the visitors, who quickly snatched home-floor advantage away from the first overall Lakers against the No. 4-seed Shamrocks. Game 2 goes Saturday at 6 p.m. at The Q Centre, where a loud crowd will await visiting Burnaby.
Up 9-5, Victoria allowed three goals in the last five minutes, but gutted out the important road win.
鈥淚t was a great team win,鈥� said Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes. 鈥淓verybody contributed. We got a big goal by junior call-up Danny Smith. Cody Nass had a huge goal and Casey Jackson stepped it up big-time tonight.
鈥淲e got off to that nice quick start, too, which was a key. I was happy with that. There are still lots of things to learn. At the end of the game they took us to a 4-on-4 situation which gave them that life. We can鈥檛 take penalties, but we did a good job of executing the game plan.鈥�
Josh Fagan and Sheldon Burns added goals for the Shamrocks, who edged the Lakers in seven games in the opening round of the post-season last year. Small added five assists on this night in which Victoria led 3-0 and 6-4 by periods.
Robert Church led the way offensively for Burnaby with four goals while Cam Milligan and Dane Stevens had two apiece in a losing cause.
Aaron Bold was busy and solid in the Victoria net facing 49 shots, while Eric Penney made 27 saves for the Lakers.
鈥淚 challenged Boldy, maybe more in the press than face-to-face. But he knew he had to be better and that was his type of game. His first period was a key,鈥� Heyes said of the 3-0 advantage, despite being out-shot 17-11.
CLOVER POINTS: The Shamrocks were without key players as Rhys Duch sat out along with Tyler Hass, Joe Resetarits, brothers Greg and Jon Harnet and Ben McCullough. Duch is likely out for the entire post-season, which is a big blow to the offence. Resetarits was expected to miss the first game, but is available for the rest of the series. Hass is expected to play Game 2.
