It will be a challenging week for the Victoria Shamrocks as the Western Lacrosse Association gets down to a dash for the finish line with the last handful of regular-season games for each team.
The Shamrocks are in New Westminster tonight to take on the Salmonbellies before returning home to face the hard-charging Langley Thunder at Bear Mountain Arena on Friday. Both games are at 7:45 p.m.
The latter could be a battle for first place as the two are tied atop the standings heading into this week鈥檚 play 鈥� the Shamrocks at 9-4 (prior to tonight) and the Thunder at 8-3-2. Both are four points up on Maple Ridge and Burnaby, who are 7-6 and tied for the last two play spots.
Both New Westminster and Coquitlam are five points back of the final post-season berths, on the outside looking in.
鈥淧laying New West, that鈥檚 a desperate team,鈥� said Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes. 鈥淚鈥檓 treating it the way we played Coquitlam on Saturday. They will be desperate, with no room for error, so every game is vital.
鈥淎nd it鈥檚 vital for us, too. We want to start building our game. We need to come out of New West with two points, so we鈥檒l focus on that. We have to take care of those wins,鈥� added Heyes.
The Shamrocks 鈥� coming off a 13-9 win in Coquitlam on Saturday 鈥� will attempt to make a little run and grab that top placing, which would give them home floor throughout the post-season.
Nagging injuries will start taking effect on all WLA rosters as the season wears down, but Heyes isn鈥檛 complaining about his team鈥檚 current lot in life.
The Shamrocks had Scott Ranger (injury) and Jeff Shattler return to the lineup in Saturday鈥檚 victory and are due to get defensive specialist Nolan Heavenor back from suspension tonight.
Victoria will be without Rhys Duch until the post-season starts after he played the final four games. Duch returns to his pro team in Hamilton before rejoining the Shamrocks for the playoffs.
鈥淲e have some bumps and bruises, we have guys who aren鈥檛 100 per cent healthy, but we have depth,鈥� said Heyes. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 play in the back of my mind, at all. We鈥檙e not short-handed by any stretch.
鈥淲e鈥檙e as healthy as we鈥檙e going to be and I expect to be in this position through the playoffs. There will always be guys hurt who are going to play through it or they won鈥檛 be able to play. We鈥檒l have to make do.鈥�
While the Shamrocks play the back-to-back scenario in New West and back at home, Langley will also play two consecutive nights, here in Victoria and then in Nanaimo on Saturday.
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