Burnaby Lakers at Victoria Shamrocks preview tonight before the playoffs

Burnaby Lakers (9-5-1) at Victoria Shamrocks (10-6-1) Preview

Friday July 28th, 7:30pm, The Q Centre

Fan Appreciation Night presented by SLEGG Building Materials

Written by Justis Doucet

Victoria – Victoria takes on Burnaby Friday for Fan Appreciation night at the Q Centre, in their final regular season game, as they look to jump into second place heading into the final few days of the WLA season. After Thursday’s game, the Shamrocks sit one point back of Maple Ridge, and two back of New Westminster. Burnaby is in fourth place with nineteen points, two back of the Shamrocks. Friday’s game also decides the tie breaker between the Rocks and Lakers, with each team holding a win in the season series.

Victoria won the first meeting 11-6, thanks to a ten point night from Corey Small, Rhys Duch also had six points. Then a week ago the Lakers held serve on their home floor with a 7-4 win on the mainland as net minder Eric Penney stopped fifty-three of fifty-seven Shamrock shots in the win.

Corey Small is in control of the league scoring race, and could take home the ‘triple crown’. Small leads the league in goals (36), assists (47) and points (83), all by comfortable margins. He is also three points away from his career high of eighty-six points. Casey Jackson sits third in both the goals and points categories with twenty-six goals and fifty-six points. Victoria has a pair of goalies in the top five in both goals against average and save percentage. Cody Hagedorn is third in goals against while Bold is fourth, and in save percentage, the two flip, Bold is third, Hagedorn fourth.

Tonight’s game also features a tailgate at 5:30 by donation in support of the West Shore Rotary, human hamster balls during the intermissions and lots of prizes throughout the night; Tickets HERE, by calling 250-478-7625 or at The Q Centre starting at noon.

Burnaby Lakers scouting report:

The Lakers have changed a lot since they were last in Victoria, with the additions of Eli McLaughlin (53 points) and Robert Church (49 points) their scoring punch has drastically improved. Both of those players had three point nights last week against Victoria. Eric Penney was a brick wall the last time these two teams played, but it’s not the first time he’s had to make a ton of saves. In four of his eight starts, Penney has stopped more than forty-five shots, and he is 3-1 when he faces more than fifty shots. The top power play unit of Victoria will go head to head with the league’s top penalty kill in Burnaby, the Lakers also average the second most goals for and second most goals against, so even though the last meeting was low scoring, take the over.

Pay Per View: http://www.playfullscreen.com/player.php?mediaid=20561

Live game stats: http://westernlacrosse.wttstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=3102294

Regular season stats to date: http://westernlacrosse.wttstats.pointstreak.com/scoringleaders.html?leagueid=258

Shamrocks stats: http://westernlacrosse.wttstats.pointstreak.com/teamplayerstats.html?teamid=31984&seasonid=17042

Next game; WLA Semi-Finals PLAYOFF game 1 (Best of 7): Thursday August 3rd, 6pm, Low seed at High seed