BURNABY 11
VICTORIA 6
The wound is open and the Burnaby Lakers poured salt in it on Wednesday.
Justin Salt scored three goals, two of them short-handed, as the Lakers recorded their second straight win to cut the Victoria Shamrocks鈥� lead in the Western Lacrosse Association best-of-seven semi-final to 3-2.
Burnaby walked off The Q Centre floor with an 11-6 triumph as momentum has clearly shifted the Lakers鈥� way and leaves the short-handed Shamrocks stinging.
Game 5 goes Friday when the two meet up in Burnaby at 6 p.m. If Game 7 is required, it returns to Colwood on Sunday at 6 p.m.
Wednesday鈥檚 win before a crowd of about 1,800 allowed the Lakers to stave off a second elimination game.
Josh Byrne and Scott Jones, with a pair, Eli McLaughlin, Dane Stevens, Robert Church and Tyler Digby also scored for the Lakers, who won 10-8 on Sunday. That was the first Shamrocks鈥� loss in the WLA post-season since 2014 after Victoria swept through both series in 2015.
Captain Corey Small had three goals and two assists for the Shamrocks who outshot the visitors 46-22 after two periods, but found themselves down 6-5. Rhys Duch, Marshal King and Jeff Shattler also scored for Victoria, which outshot Burnaby 54-36 overall.
鈥淚 think offensively we need to get to those gritty areas of the floor,鈥� said Small.
鈥淲e鈥檙e settling for outside shots. [Lakers goalie Zak Boychuck] is playing good. He鈥檚 a good goaltender, but we have to find ways to get in tight on him and give ourselves high-percetage looks. That鈥檚 the difference right now in them scoring 11 on 36 shots and us scoring six on 54 shots.鈥�
Boychuck stood tall in goal for the Lakers, but as Small said, a lot of the shots came from outside, although the Shamrocks had good looks in the first five minutes, which went scoreless.
Victoria shot blanks for most of the first period, outshooting the Lakers 18-11 (and 13-4 at one point), but were down 2-1 at the first intermission.
