Maple Ridge Burrards (4-3) @ Victoria Shamrocks (6-1-1) Game Preview

Maple Ridge Burrards (4-3) @ Victoria Shamrocks (6-1-1) Game Preview

Alumni Night presented by Jenner Chevrolet Buick GMC

Friday June 23 @ 7:30pm, The Q Centre

Shamrocks host Burrards on Alumni night in first half of home and home

Written by Justis Doucet

Victoria - The Victoria Shamrocks look to carry offensive momentum into this week's home matchup against Maple Ridge in the Burrards first game in Victoria since last year's WLA Finals. Since being held to six goals in Coquitlam for the team's only loss, the 'Rocks have rebounded with three of their four highest scoring games this season, leading them to a trio of wins. The Shamrocks have scored twelve twice and sixteen in their last three outings, while the WLA goals per game average sit at just over nine. Postgame on Friday marks the halfway point of the Shamrocks season, and at 6-1-1, could hit the halfway mark at least four points clear of the second-place team with a win.

Friday's meeting will be the second of the season, and only meeting in Victoria, as the two teams will battle on Tuesday in Maple Ridge for the final time. The first meeting occurred back on June 11th, a 12-10 Victoria win. Victoria held 6-4 and 10-6 intermission leads and held the Burrards in check in the third period, leading 12-8 with two minutes left before Maple Ridge scored a pair of late goals.

The first meeting was similar to Sunday's road win in Nanaimo, Victoria fell behind early, came back, and took off. After falling behind a goal four times in the first fifteen minutes Victoria tied it each time, before scoring six straight over the last four minutes of the first to the eleven-minute mark of the second. Victoria then cruised to the finish, with Casey Jackson icing it with five minutes left on a power-play goal.

Victoria has the league's top power play by a whopping eight percent, and have scored five more goals on the man advantage than any other team. The 'Rocks are 24/52 on the PP, for a percentage of 46.15%. The 24 goals account for 28% percent of the team's goals.

The Victoria Shamrocks and Shamrock's alumni association will be raising a second green and white jersey banner into the rafters of The Q Centre. Ranjit Dillon’s#5 jersey will be raised prior to Friday's game for Alumni night. Members of the 1997 Mann Cup Championship team will be dropping the ball before the game and the popular alumni 'tailgate' begins at 5:30 with music and Triple O's burgers by donation, with proceeds benefiting the Victoria Shamrocks Alumni and the Westshore Rotary club.

Now for your stats fix, Corey Small has more assists than 190 of the 191 other WLA players have points. Maple Ridge's Mike Mallory has 29 points, equaling Small's assist total. Casey Jackson has recorded points in all five games he's played in this season, and totalled twenty in the last three contests. Cody Nass leads the league in game-winning goals, two of the five times he's lit the red light have counted as the game winner. Three Shamrocks have shooting percentages of 1.000, Tyler Hass along with both Jon and Greg Harnett have scored on all the shots they've taken. Meanwhile, Victoria as a team leads the league in goals per game(10.75), goals against per game(7.88), and power-play percentage (46.2%).

Maple Ridge Burrards Scouting Report

The Burrards are lead by the WLA's second leading scorer Mike Mallory, his fourteen goals are third in the league behind Small (18) and Casey Jackson (17). Mallory wears #8 and had seven points, including the Burrards first three goals, against Victoria in the previous meeting. Adam Dickson and Riley Loewen also sit in the top ten in league scoring with twenty-five and twenty-three points respectively. Maple Ridge sits in a logjam in the middle of the WLA standings with eight points and a 4-3 record. They sit behind Burnaby by a point, and up a point om both New Westminster and Nanaimo. Frank Scigliano is second in the league in wins with four, behind only Cody Hagedorn, and has made the second most saves. Maple Ridge has also had a trio of players return from the NLL since the last time Victoria saw them Jeff Cornwall, Matthew Dinsale, and Ben McIntosh has a combined thirteen points in five games between the three.

Pay Per View: Visit victoriashamrocks.com under the Fan Zone tab

Live game stats: http://westernlacrosse.wttstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=3102263

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: (AWAY) Tuesday June 27th Victoria Shamrocks at Maple Ridge Burrards, 7:00pm, Planet Ice arena

Next HOME game: Friday June 30th vs Nanaimo Timbermen, 7:30pm at The Q centre presented by View Royal Casino, Tickets at www.victoriashamrocks.com or 250-478-7625.