As far as wins go, this one had an even sweeter taste to it for Adam Shute.
The Victoria Shamrocks netminder stopped 41 shots to defeat his former teammates, the Coquitlam Adanacs, 15-5 in Western Lacrosse Association action at The Q Centre on Friday night. It was his second-straight victory after earning the 15-6 triumph in Langley in his very first start on Wednesday in which he also made 41 saves.
Acquired last month for a draft pick, Shute also showed off his passing abilities in collecting three assists.
鈥淚t was a good one, playing the old team and it鈥檚 a good way to start out,鈥� Shute said of the two victories. 鈥淚t鈥檚 always good to get my first starts [away and at home] and the team supported me, and played solid defence in both. The guys have accepted me and that鈥檚 great.鈥�
With the victory the Shamrocks improve to 8-3 while Coquitlam slips to 6-5 as the Adanacs also lost the night previous in New Westminster against the Salmonbellies, who also won 10-7 Friday in Burnaby. The 鈥橞ellies are now 8-3-2 and remain two points ahead of Victoria, which has two games in hand.
The Shamrocks opened up a 2-0 lead by the 8:39 mark of the first period, but saw that evaporate with a pair of power-play goals within 55 seconds from the Adanacs. Victoria replied with a pair of man-advantage goals of their own, one late in the first period for a 3-2 advantage at the break and one just 29 seconds into the second. Four goals in 3:09, two-thirds of the way through the second broke it open.
Rhys Duch, who led the league with 53 points and 21 goals coming into the game, added to his totals with a spectacular six goals and three helpers. Corey Small added three goals and three assists for the Shamrocks.
Chris Wardle and Ian McShane both collected two goals and a helper and Jeff Shattler tallied twice and popped three assists.
Cory Conway, the WLA leader in assists with 40 at the start of the night, chipped in with seven more helpers.
Reid Reinholdt, Ryan Johnson and Matthew Delmonico did most of the damage for the Adanacs and mainly on the power play. Reinholdt had two goals and one assist; Johnson added three goals and two helpers; and Delmonico finished with three assists.
