Shamrocks Host Game #5 with Finals Berth on the Line

Written by Ian McNaughton

August 9, 2018

Victoria, BC – Good evening Shamrocks Nation! It’s game day for your Victoria Shamrocks, who come back home to The Q Centre to take on the Nanaimo Timbermen in Game #5 of their WLA semi-final playoff series. Tuesday night in Nanaimo, the Shamrocks were rock steady defeating their island rivals 12-7. It was a complete performance from beginning to end for the Shamrocks. At the end of the night, they left Frank Crane Arena with a 3-1 series lead and a chance to clinch the series at home tonight. 

The Shamrocks have arguably been the better team through the first 4 games. After losing the first game in sudden death overtime 12-11, the Shamrocks have only been down for 1:42 out of a potential 180 minutes in the previous 3 games. The rest of the series has either been tied or the Shamrocks beating Nanaimo. Another key difference in this series has been that the team that scores the most goals in the second period has gone on to win each game. 

Game 1 saw Nanaimo outscored Victoria 5-3 and went on to win. In the previous three games, the Shamrocks have doubled the Timbermen in second-period goals, 16-8. As we know the Shamrocks have won the last 3 games, making the 2nd period a critical one that is relative to the Shamrocks success. If the Shamrocks lead after 40 minutes, odds are they’ll be victorious by the end of the night. 

The Shamrocks have been dangerous on offense with 3 of the top 5 playoff points leaders. They are averaging 10.5 goals per game and what makes this team explosive has been the scoring depth. The ‘Rocks already have 5 different players with 5 goals and everybody is following the leader Casey Jackson, who has 10 goals for Victoria. 

As a result of the ‘Rocks fiery offense, Nanaimo has pulled starting goalie Charles Claxton in the last 2 games. Backup Timbermen netminder Mike DeGirolamo has been serviceable in his two appearances playing 60:28 in the combined games, with 7.94 goals against average and a .822 save percentage. Nanaimo performed better in the second half of Game #3 than Game #4 with DeGirolamo in the net but it takes a team to weather the storm, not just one player. 

While the Shamrocks have performed remarkably well as a team offensively, no one has more points than Rob Hellyer. Hellyer had a hat-trick and two assists in Game #4 and sits at 21 points through the 4 games. He has scored at least 5 points in every game he’s played since July 6th versus Langley. He should be in line for another offensive burst tonight against Nanaimo. 

Tickets can be purchased on the Victoria Shamrocks website here. If necessary, Game #6 will be played on Sunday in Nanaimo and Game #7 would be played on Tuesday August 14th. Every game would be played at 7:30pm. We need all your help to help the ‘Rocks take the Rock! Make sure to follow the Shamrocks on Twitter (@WLAShamrocks) and Instagram (@wlashamrocks). You can follow a live tweet of the game on Twitter and check out some amazing behind the scenes action on our Instagram story.