It’s Go Time for Green and White

Written by Ian McNaughton

July 20, 2018

Victoria, BC – It’s a new day for the Victoria Shamrocks, who have returned home to take on the always competitive Maple Ridge Burrards. In the hunt for first place the Shamrocks must go through the Burrards, who enter tonight sitting one point ahead of Victoria. With the Shamrocks winning the first two games against Maple Ridge already this season, the ‘Rocks already have the advantage when it comes to tiebreakers in the standings. Tonight’s game is about adding points and cementing the Shamrocks as not only a playoff team but the team no one wants to go up against when the playoffs begin. 

Maple Ridge has played once before this week, defeating the Coquitlam Adanacs 9-4 Tuesday night at the Cam Neely Arena. Frank Scigliano, the Burrards Goalie, was on his A game Tuesday, turning down 37 of 41 shots and earning first star honours. The Burrards have only won two of their last six games - both of those wins over the Adanacs. The 9 goals scored by Maple Ridge on Tuesday is the most they have scored in a game since July 3rd when they tied with Burnaby 12-12. Burrards leading scorer Curtis Dickson is not available tonight as he is in Israel representing Canada at the FIL World Lacrosse Championship. 

The Shamrocks gameplan revolves around not just scoring goals, but getting timely ones from a variety of players and it has worked so far this season. The main attention has gone to leading scorers Jesse King and Casey Jackson so far this season and rightfully so. King has 74 points this season and is on pace to finish the season with 94 points in the regular season. For Jackson, he is tied for the league lead in goals with 37 already. However, anyone in the Shamrocks organization will tell you that this team thrives when everyone is contributing to the team. The Shamrocks one of two teams that have six goals scorers with over 10 goals, which makes each line a threat to score.

Now the ‘Rocks come back home after playing their last 3 games on the road. The Shamrocks went 2-1 on the time away from home and now look to improve their impressive 5-1 record at The Q Centre this season. In their last home game, Victoria was victorious over the Langley Thunder in a close 13-11 game. With just 4 games left in the season, 3 of them at home, the Shamrocks have big goals to reach and expect nothing less than 1st place in the WLA. 

Fans can get tickets for tonight and future games here (https://bit.ly/2uPn21Q). Tonight’s game is Keep Smiling Night Presented by Westshore Dental Clinic. After tonight, the Shamrocks will faceoff against Coquitlam Adanacs tomorrow at the Poirier Sports Complex. Fans can see that game here (https://bit.ly/2O2G8ur) and see the Shamrocks return the favour to Coquitlam on July 27th when they host the Adanacs at The Q Centre. Make sure you use #ShamrocksNation when you’re posting all of your favourite Shamrocks moments on social media!