The Shamrocks managed an impressive 14-8 victory over the Burnaby Lakers in front of 2,018 fans at Bear Mountain Arena to improve to 3-0 on the young campaign.
Victoria flashed some of that expected offence as Corey Small, Jeff Shattler and Scott Ranger led the way with three goals apiece. Ranger鈥檚 all came on power plays and he and Shattler each added five assists on the high octane evening.
Even more impressive is the fact the Shamrocks had allowed just 13 goals against in the first two outings, tied with the Langley Thunder in fewest goals against. The 鈥橰ocks kept that end of the bargain up again, for the most part, and have now scored 34 times in the first three victories.
The 20 the Shamrocks had notched coming into the game were second behind New Westminster鈥檚 22 prior to Friday night play. Victoria had defeated those same Salmonbellies 10-7 on Thursday night in New West.
鈥淲e led the league in goals for last year by almost 20 goals over the second-place team and I expect we鈥檒l build off that this year, despite losing Ryan Benesch, who obviously is a very talented offensive player,鈥� said Shamrocks general manager Chris Welch, who made all the off-season moves in bringing in Ranger, Cory Conway and Duch, among others. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to put up decent offensive numbers.鈥�
Last season the Shamrocks scored 195 times, 17 more than Nanaimo, which featured Ranger and Conway, who both asked to be traded. Victoria started 5-0 in 2012, but the 鈥橰ocks were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Coquitlam.
Two-time defending WLA champion Langley will be the opponent next Friday.
On Friday, Shattler opened the scoring for the Shamrocks for the second straight game. Conway, Tyler Hass, Scott Carnegie, Mike Pires and Mitch Jones also scored for Victoria, which opened up 2-0 and 3-1 leads by the 7:24 mark of the first.
The hosts were guilty of giving up three power-play goals, however, in the opening frame as they took a 5-3 lead into the first intermission and also led 9-5 after 40 minutes.
Jackson Decker and Shaun Dhaliwal, with a pair each, Dane Stevens, Darren Kinnear, Colton Clark and Blake Mattinson replied for the Lakers.
Conway, who had seven assists in the home opener last week, had another seven helpers on Friday as he continues to prove he is one of the best passers in the league.
