Showdown for Shamrocks in Maple Ridge for Game #4

Written by Ian McNaughton

August 23, 2018

Victoria, BC – Golf has a “moving” day, typically a Saturday, in which the competitors try to shoot a good round to set up themselves for a first-place finish on Sunday. One could say that Thursday has to be the moving day for the Victoria Shamrocks, who enter Thursday behind 2 games to 1 to the Maple Ridge Burrards in the WLA Finals. A win tonight would even the series before the two teams travel back to Victoria for Saturday. 

It has been a struggle, to say the least, to contain Burrards superstar Curtis Dickson. Dickson has been on another level this postseason, scoring an average of 3.2 goals per game. He’s tied for first in the league with 6 power play goals for the Burrards. For all the talk there has been about the scoring prowess of Dickson, fans should not look past some of Maple Ridge’s supplementary talents. Ben McIntosh has 30 points in 7 playoffs game, including a first-period hat-trick in Game #3 Tuesday night in Victoria. Burrards forward Jean-Luc Chetner is on a bit of a heater himself, scoring 7 points in the last 2 games. 

It’s been a challenge to create separation and create shots for the Victoria Shamrocks. In Game #3, they finally got 45 shots on Maple Ridge goalie Frank Scigliano. That was their highest total in this series but it has been a struggle. Victoria never shot less than 45 shots in any game against Nanaimo in the previous round which has made this matchup with Maple Ridge very demanding. 

The guy making his name known in August has been Rob Hellyer. Hellyer has been outstanding in the playoffs, leading the way with 37 points. He had 4 points in Game #3 against the Burrards and will want to keep up his impressive scoring streak. Tyson Gibson is the leading Shamrocks goal scorer as he has 15 goals in the playoffs. Gibson has scored 2 goals in every game against Maple Ridge in the Finals so watch for him to get another two. This could be the game that Casey Jackson breaks out as he is yet to score in this series. He registered a goal in every Shamrocks game before this series, including last round against Nanaimo. Look out for him in tonight’s critical game against a high flying Maple Ridge Burrards team. 

You can see tonight’s game on the WLA TV webcasts, which you can find here. Game #5 goes Saturday night at The Q Centre in Victoria. If you haven’t got tickets yet, you can find them here. Each game starts at 6:30pm, with doors opening at 5:30pm for Saturday’s game. We can’t wait to see you there Shamrocks Nation!