MAPLE RIDGE BURRARDS 8
VICTORIA SHAMROCKS 7 (OT)
Burrards lead the series 3-1
The Victoria Shamrocks will have to win out in the Western Lacrosse Association final if they want to advance to the 2018 Mann Cup national Senior 鈥楢鈥� lacrosse championship series.
A furious Victoria rally fell short, as the Shamrocks again paid for a slow start in an 8-7 double-overtime loss to the Maple聽Ridge Burrards on Thursday night at Cam Neely聽Arena on the Lower Mainland.
Regulation time ended 6-6 and the first, straight-time 10-minute overtime wound up 7-7 before the Burrards聽settled it in the second, sudden-death overtime period.
The Burrards lead the best-of-seven WLA final 3-1 with Game 5 scheduled for Saturday night at the Q Centre in Colwood.
Maple Ridge鈥檚 Frank Scigliano,聽named WLA goaltender of the year, was outstanding in facing a聽57-shot Shamrocks barrage.
鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 get the ball by him,鈥� said Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes. 鈥淭hat got to us a little bit.鈥�
Maple Ridge took advantage of Scigliano鈥檚 crease heroics to jump into a 4-0 first-period lead and a 5-0 lead early in the second period, powered by four goals by聽Ben McIntosh.
That echoed the 3-0 first-period lead the Burrards took in the first period of Game 3 Tuesday at the Q Centre on a natural hat trick by McIntosh, a pro NLL champion this year with the Saskatchewan Rush and silver-medallist with聽sa国际传媒 at the 2018聽world field-lacrosse championships in Israel.
鈥淢cIntosh killed us tonight,鈥� Heyes said.
Yet it came down to one shot in sudden-death overtime.
鈥淲e battled all night,鈥� Heyes said.
鈥淲e outplayed them but had no ball luck. We鈥檝e played well enough to be up 3-1, but we are not there. Our goalie has to be our best player on the floor and our best [out] players have to bring it on Saturday.鈥�
Two-way dynamo Steve Priolo finally got Victoria on the board at 6:08 of the second period before rookie Jean-Luc Chetner restored the Burrards鈥� five-goal advantage at 7:26.
Five consecutive goals 鈥� another from Priolo, two from Jesse King, and singles from Chris Wardle and Rhys Duch 鈥攂rought聽Victoria level in regulation.
Rookie Tyson Gibson out of NCAA Div. 1 Robert Morris gave the Shamrocks a 7-6 lead in the first overtime period before McIntosh tied it, setting the stage for sudden death.
