Victoria Shamrocks open the WLA Finals in New Westminster on Friday

Victoria Shamrocks at New Westminster Salmonbellies game preview

Friday August 18th, 6pm, Queens Park arena

Game 1 of Western Lacrosse Association Finals

 

Written by Justis Doucet

For the second straight year, the battle to get into the WLA Finals was a classic that took seven games for Victoria to knock off the Burnaby Lakers.

The Shamrocks now take on the New Westminster Salmonbellies in the best of seven WLA Finals, with the right to host and compete for the Mann Cup. New Westminster, like Victoria, pulled out a game seven win on the road, except theirs took a little extra time. Mitch Jones scored in double overtime to punch the Salmonbellies ticket to the Finals.

The WLA Finals should be a back and forth classic for lacrosse fans as Victoria and New Westminster split their three game series this season, each team picking up a win, loss, and draw.

Corey Small finished the regular season with a career high 88 points in 18 games, an average of 4.8 per game. He totalled another 30 points in the series against Burnaby, second most in the WLA's first round. Casey Jackson was also an integral part of Victoria's first round win, leading the team with twelve goals, all but two of those coming in games Victoria won. That included a four goal series opener, and a three goal three assist night in the game seven victory. Joe Resetarits played four regular season games, two less than he played in round one, but his production sky-rocketed in the postseason. After missing game one, Resetarits recorded five points in game two, a new season high, then followed that up with an eight point effort in game four.   On the backend, Goaltender Aaron Bold was a brick wall in Game seven with 45 saves, including 21 in the third period alone.  He was instrumental in the Shamrocks four game wins with 258 saves and an 82% save percentage.

 

Shamrock tickets are a hot commodity in Victoria with Game two on Sunday and Game four the following Friday, both start at 6pm and can be purchased at victoriashamrocks.com or by calling 250-478-ROCK.

Watch the game (PPV): http://wlalacrosse.com/view/wla/wla-tv or at Browns Socialhouse in Langford

Live game stats: http://westernlacrosse.wttstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=3176446

Playoff stats: http://westernlacrosse.wttstats.pointstreak.com/scoringleaders.html?leagueid=258

Shamrock stats: http://westernlacrosse.wttstats.pointstreak.com/teamplayerstats.html?teamid=673543&seasonid=17341