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That loud cheer you might have heard coming from the mainland on Friday night was likely Maple Ridge Burrards fans, delighted to find out their club is heading to the post-season.
The Victoria Shamrocks鈥� lop-sided 14-5 win over the Langley Thunder at The Q Centre means the Burrards grabbed the fourth and final spot in the Western Lacrosse Association playoffs, which begin Monday.
Victoria will host Maple Ridge at 5 p.m. in Game 1 of the best-of-seven semi-finals with Game 2 set for the mainland on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Games 3 and 4 go next Saturday and Sunday.
The Shamrocks (14-4) finished first overall and begin a quest for their third straight WLA championship. The Burrards (9-9) were fourth behind the second-place New Westminster Salmonbellies (12-6) and third-seed Langley (also 9-9).
During the season the Shamrocks defeated the Burrards twice by one-goal margins, 12-11 at home on June 5 and 10-9 on the road on June 21.
Victoria did not have goaltender Aaron Bold and transition player Tyler Hass in either regular-season matchup and Dan Dawson missed the second game after recording three goals and three assists in the first matchup.
That all goes out the window in the post-season.
鈥淚t was a difficult game to play with the circumstances. It鈥檚 a weird game,鈥� Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes said of the final regular-season win, which meant little to Victoria. 鈥淭he team came out and we played. We鈥檙e going to take on all-comers. We play Maple Ridge in the first round and we鈥檙e going to be ready to go.鈥�
A Victoria loss would have meant a date with the Burnaby Lakers who the Shamrocks hammered by scores of 11-5, 14-7 and 14-4 during the regular season.
That had no bearing on who Heyes dressed on this evening. He was without Dan Dawson and Steve Priolo who were both at Team sa国际传媒 camp (Dawson was named captain on Saturday). The other scratches were Bradley Kri (who has been injured for some time), Chris Wardle and backup goalie Matt Roik.
Bold started and stopped 35 shots in the victory. Corey Small easily wrapped up the scoring title with five goals and two assists while captain Scott Ranger had four goals and two helpers. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about what we can do to improve each game. The boys came to play tonight and we鈥檙e prepared for the playoffs,鈥� said Ranger.
Jesse King added two goals and two assists and Karsen Leung, Daryl Veltman and Tyler Hass had the other Victoria goals. Cory Conway and Rhys Duch each had five assists.
Athan Ianucci, Mitch McMichael, Kevin Pym, Patrick Saunders and Ian Poole replied for Langley.
