Bellies bear down on Cup berth
After OT win, New West leads Western Lacrosse Association final series 3-1 over Victoria
A win tonight on their home floor can send the New Westminster Salmonbellies back to the Mann Cup for the first time since 2010.
The Bellies got a goal Friday from Logan Schuss at 6:24 of overtime to defeat the Victoria Shamrocks 9-8 at the Q Centre on Vancouver Island and give the visitors a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Lacrosse Association final.
Victoria’s Rhys Duch tied the game with 18.5 seconds left in regulation with a short-handed marker.
Oddly enough, Schuss and Duch are teammates in the winter with the National Lacrosse League’s Vancouver Stealth.
Sunday’s game starts at 6 p.m. at Queen’s Park Arena. Game 6, if required, would be Tuesday at the Q, while a Game 7 would be Friday back in New Westminster.
“We still have to get to four wins, just like they do,” Shamrocks coach Bob Heyes told the Victoria Times Colonist. “But we have zero room for error.”
The WLA champion hosts the Ontario banner winner in the Mann Cup, Canada’s best-of-seven Senior A boxla championship. The Peterborough Lakers carry a 2-0 lead on the Six Nations Chiefs in the eastern final series heading into action Sunday.
Peterborough beat New Westminster in six games at home to take the 2010 Mann. That ended a threeyear run of making the national final for the Bellies. They had that engaging seven-game set with the Brampton Excelsiors at Queen’s Park in 2009, which saw the Excelsiors win four games in overtime.
Teams do come back from 3-1 deficits. The Bellies did just that to make the final series against Victoria, winning three consecutive elimination games to beat the reigning league champion Maple Ridge Burrards.
Six Nations beat Maple Ridge in last year’s Mann Cup. Victoria won the title in 2015, ending a nine-year run for Ontario teams.