VICTORIA聽 10
NANAIMO聽 7
It looks to be another dark August at Frank Crane Arena. The Victoria Shamrocks, meanwhile, hope to keep the lights burning bright at the Q Centre through September. The Island derby in the Western Lacrosse Association is again a tale of two teams heading in opposite directions.
The Shamrocks clinched a playoff berth and stepped atop the WLA heap with a 10-7 victory Saturday over the Timbermen at Frank Crane. The annual WLA power Shamrocks (10-4-1) moved into first place with 21 points with three games remaining, one point ahead of Maple Ridge, but the Burrards (10-4) hold a game in hand.
The Timbermen can only hope they are following the Edmonton Oilers鈥� script. Nanaimo (4-9-1) is hurtling toward missing the WLA playoffs for the 10th consecutive season. The Oilers did the same before finally breaking their decade-long NHL playoff drought this past season. But do the Timbermen have the lacrosse equivalent of youthful talent such as Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl? The T-Men have been slowly improving through the WLA draft, but do not possess a generational equivalent of McDavid. Who does? So the Timbermen continue looking for answers.
Nanaimo has made the playoffs only once, in 2007, in the 12 seasons since re-entering the WLA in 2005. The Timbermen are not yet mathematically eliminated, but are getting close. They sit six points adrift of the final playoff berth, held by the fourth-place New Westminster Salmon-bellies, with four games left.
The game Saturday was tied 6-6 before the Shamrocks outscored Nanaimo 4-1 in the third period. Corey Small had three goals and three assists for Victoria to push his league leads to 35 goals, 43 assists and 78 points. NLL Rochester Knighthawks pro Joe Resetarits, a standout American out of University of Albany NCAA Div. 1 field lacrosse, had two goals and two assists. Casey Jackson had a goal and four assists. Jake Cullen and Jon Phillips scored twice each for Nanaimo.
The Shamrocks are in Burnaby on Friday to face the third-place Lakers.
