At times this season, the Victoria Shamrocks wondered what a 60-minute team effort would look like. They found out Friday night.
The Shamrocks went full out from start to finish, and thumped the Burnaby Lakers 17-3 in Game 3 of the Western Lacrosse Association semifinals.
Now up 3-0 in the best-of-seven playoff, Victoria can wrap up the series with a victory tonight, starting at 7:45 p.m., in Burnaby. If a fifth game is necessary, it鈥檒l be at Bear Mountain Arena on Wednesday.
鈥淭he fourth one is always the hardest to win, and that鈥檚 good squad over there,鈥� Shamrocks captain Scott Ranger said, adding his team will need another performance like they had on Friday.
鈥淚 think we did everything well. Our loose balls were good, our power play was good, the defence was good. I don鈥檛 think we had a facet of our game that was sub par.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to have to play like that to get to where we want to go.鈥�
The 鈥橰ocks鈥� goal, of course, is the Mann Cup, although next up would be the WLA final against the Langley Thunder, who beat the Coquitlam Adanacs 11-9 Game 4 on Saturday to sweep that series.
鈥淥ur attitude is definitely win or bust,鈥� Ranger said. 鈥淭he guys in that room are excited to get to the next level.鈥�
In Game 3, the Shamrocks held a 4-1 lead going into the second period, when Burnaby tried to demolish the Shamrocks with some punishing hits. Jeff Shattler, Tyler Hass and Nolan Heavenor all were slammed to the floor, but the strategy backfired on the Lakers.
鈥淔rom my point of view, they got a little carried away with trying to beat us up,鈥� Hass said. 鈥淭hey got carried away with trying to hurt us, and it ended up hurting them.鈥�
The effect was the fleet-footed Burnaby transition players and offensive threats got bogged down with the physical game. They didn鈥檛 score, while the Shamrocks kept rolling to the net. Goals in the second period were 7-2 for Victoria, and the Lakers never scored at all in the final half of the game.
Overall, Victoria鈥檚 goals came from 10 different players, including Brody Eastwood, who had three goals and an assist.
Eastwood and Jesse King, who had a goal and three assists, are both Junior Shamrocks call-ups who haven鈥檛 looked a bit out of place.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been awesome. It鈥檚 a great experience and a lot of fun to play with guys you looked up to,鈥� Eastwood said, adding the pace is much faster than junior and there are 鈥渂igger guys, a lot bigger guys.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 just trying to move my feet, and not mess up too bad.鈥�
The pace tonight is likely to be faster than ever, as the Lakers play for their season. Although the 鈥橰ocks will be ready, they also understand how difficult a comeback is going to be for the Lakers.
鈥淚t鈥檚 tough to win four straight in a seven-game series,鈥� said a stitched-up Heavenor, who pointed out it would take a lot more than a rough hit to keep him down.
鈥淏urnaby has talent and they have young energy and effort, so obviously, anything is possible, but we鈥檙e finally starting to play our best.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a good feeling, winning a game like that.鈥�
