Shamrocks explosive second period leads to big win over Langley Friday night in Victoria

Langley Thunder 5 at Victoria Shamrocks 11 recap

Shamrocks explosive second period leads to big win over Langley

Written by Justis Doucet

Victoria - If there was any question as to whether the Shamrocks were unhappy after Wednesday's loss on the mainland, the answer was yes. They showed it with an all-out blitzing in the second period where they scored more goals than all of the previous game. They also had a short spurt that shows how quickly a game can swing or in this case, be blown wide open.

Like Wednesday, the game started as a defensive battle, with plenty of chances at both ends, but goaltenders were up to the task. It took until the 7:45 mark for either team to find the back of the net, and it was the home side doing so. Corey Small drew both defenders out of a pick and roll then found Mike Triolo sliding to the goal, where he bounced a shot past Thunder net-minder Davide Diruscio. The goal came just eleven seconds into Victoria's only power-play of the period. Four minutes later the Thunder answered as JP Kealey found Dylan LaCroix open in the slot, to tie the game at one. That was all the scoring in the opening twenty minutes. As mentioned the Shamrocks went one for one on the power play, and they also killed both of the Thunder's man advantages. Cody Hagedorn stopped ten of the eleven shots he faced.

The Shamrocks turned the defensive battle on its head in the second period. Josh Fagan gave the Rocks a 2-1 lead just under five minutes into the period, then Corey Small added some insurance two and a half minutes later making it 3-1. Langley responded, cutting the deficit in half on LaCroix's second of the game. Then the Victoria offence took charge from semi-automatic to all out blitz. They scored four goals in 1:29 turning a 3-2 lead into a comfortable five-goal cushion. Small's second started the run at 10:06, and Greg Harnett's at 11:37 finished it, with another goal from Small and a single from Sheldon Burns. Victoria wasn't done there, they scored twice more within the span of a minute, Casey Jackson's 20th of the season came with 2:56 remaining, and Steve Priolo's 1st happened fifty-eight seconds later. The Shamrocks scored six straight to close out the period while outshooting Langley 27-9 in the period, taking a 9-2 lead to the room. The eight goals in a period is a season high for the Shamrocks.

The Thunder were able to stop the run as Brandon Clelland scored on a breakaway four minutes into the third, then Johnny Pearson made it 9-4 shortly after on the power-play. Casey Jackson answered with his second of the night, finding the back of the net on the run, opening up a 10-4 lead. JP Kealey scored with five minutes left to trim it to five, but Ethan Garland chimed in with his first of the season late to cap off an 11-5 win.

Corey Small and Casey Jackson each had five points, Jackson had two goals three assists, Small the opposite. Greg Harnett, Mike Triolo, Chris Wardle, Josh Fagan, and Steve Priolo all had multi-point games in the win. Cody Hagedorn picked up his seventh win of the season stopping twenty-nine of thirty-four shots while also collecting an assist on Garland's goal.  The win moves the shamrocks to 8-4-1 and a share of 1st place in the WLA with Burnaby.

Complete Game Stats: http://westernlacrosse.wttstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=3102276

Victoria Shamrocks player stats: http://bit.ly/2qAWxOo

Game Photos (credit Jay Wallace): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/u5haq9wqx3g55wr/AADV-RGPzRAEjz6faiIdvrsqa?dl=0

Next game (HOME): Friday July 14th vs Coquitlam Adanacs, 7:30pm at The Q centre. Salute to Local Heroes presented by The Langford Legion, Tickets HERE or by calling 250-4