’Rocks roll over T-Men in opener
There were no stealth attacks this time as the Victoria Shamrocks got off to a 1-0 lead in their bestof-seven WLA semifinal series against the Nanaimo Timbermen.
The Timbermen, in their first playoff game in 11 seasons last year, shocked the Shamrocks in Game 1 of the 2018 semifinals. Lesson absorbed, Victoria came back to win the series in five games.
The teams are meeting again in the semifinals and the top-seed Shamrocks were wary and knew the fourth-seed T-Men would again be looking for a quick punch in the opening game.
Those Nanaimo hopes were dashed by a methodical 11-4 victory by the Shamrocks on Tuesday night at The Q Centre.
“We’ve had some bad starts in playoff series the last couple of years and we knew coming out strong in this first game was very important,” said veteran Shamrocks sniper Jesse King, who scored a hat-trick.
Those thoughts were echoed by transition standout Graeme Hossack, who scored twice.
“Anything can happen in the playoffs and we knew Naniamo would be coming out hard at us,” said the 2018 NLL pro defensive player of the year. “But we were clicking on all cylinders.”
The Shamrocks played a wellrounded game with three of their goals from defensive or transition players, two by Hossack and one by Derek Llyod, as Victoria built a 4-1 first-period lead and an 8-1 advantage by 12:51 of the second period to chase Nanaimo starter Charles Claxton from the crease.
Rookie find Chris Boushy matched King with the hat-trick for Victoria. Connor Robinson and rookie Marshal King had a goal each. Nick Finlay, Ryan Sheridan, Jon Phillips and Gord Phillips scored the Nanaimo goals.
Peter Dubenski made several timely saves in goal for Victoria.
Game 2 is Thursday night at Frank Crane Arena in the Harbour City, Game 3 Saturday night at The Q Centre.
BOXLA BITS: Not that there’s much on the line today in the B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League. The deciding Game 7 of the playoff semifinal series between the Victoria Junior Shamrocks and New Westminster Junior Salmonbellies goes at 5 p.m. in the The Q Centre. Hanging in the balance is a berth in the 2019 Minto Cup national championship tournament next month at the Langley Events Centre to join the Coquitlam Junior Adanacs, 4-2 winners over the Nanaimo Junior Timbermen in the other B.C. semifinal, and the winners of the Prairie and Ontario junior leagues.