A20 • www.vicnews.com
COVER-TO-COVER
On-Line Now available in an easy to read downloadable and printable format!
Go to:
vicnews.com oakbaynews.com saanichnews.com goldstreamgazette.com Click on Link (on the right) or Scroll down to the bottom Click on eEdition (paper icon).
Instant access to our complete paper! Editorial, Ads, Classifieds, Photos
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - VICTORIA
NEWS
Jr. Rocks draw New West Shamrocks the final seed in junior lacrosse playoffs Travis Paterson News staff
Coach Larry Smeltzer wants to believe his team will come together in the playoffs. The Victoria Shamrocks are the sixth and final seed to qualify for the B.C. Junior Lacrosse League postseason, drawing the third-place New Westminster Salmonbellies. “(Hockey’s) Los Angeles Kings were the final seed and they (won the Stanley Cup),” Smeltzer said. “Are we the Los Angeles of our league? We just need to come together at the right time.” The stage is certainly set, as the Shamrocks will open the first-round series on the road against the Salmonbellies, likely Saturday night. New West won all three meetings this year, 9-7 at Bear Mountain Arena, and 12-4 and 10-9 at Queen’s Arena. “It’s funny, we didn’t beat (New West) but we still hoped we would get them (in the playoffs),” Smeltzer said. “We feel they felt they were lucky to beat us. And the games are more predictable from our perspective.” There is a lingering expectation that the core of this Shamrocks team, which won the 2010 provincial intermediate-A championship, will one day make a similar run at the junior A level. But time is running out, as the core of the squad is 20 years old, and next year will be its last. The team is talented offensively, second overall in goals scored with 209. There’s also been a series of tweaks to Smeltzer’s old-is-new-again system. To start the season, all players were responsible for offence and defence, as Smeltzer moved away from the current trend of the day, which is to lean heavily on specialized players. Instead, he emphasized fast breaks and taking advantage of the other team’s line changes. The fast break has continued, but the Rocks Greg Sakaki/Black Press now use a hybrid system of sorts. “Sometimes we change it up period to period, Victoria junior Shamrocks player Conrad and sometimes parts of (the new) system are Chapman, left, grabs a loose ball against the quite hidden,” Smeltzer said. “But we’re tied for Nanaimo Timbermen during a B.C. Junior the most short handed goals (21), goalie (Cody Lacrosse League game earlier this season. Hagedorn) has 20 assists, and we’ve scored lots of goals on the breakout, so it’s there.” The Shamrocks ended the regular season with a 14-11 road loss to the first-place Coquitlam AdanSalmonbellies at Shamrocks, Saturday, acs on Sunday. 5 p.m. at Bear Mountain Arena, Game 2 of Coquitlam put the Shamrocks under the gun quarterfinals best-of-three series. from the start with a 7-1 lead in the first period. It looked like the Shamrocks had already lost when Brody Eastwood scored a hat trick and the Rocks New West scored once to win the game. stormed back to outscore the Adanacs 7-3 in the “As the season went on we’ve pulled it together, second period. The Adanacs’ lead slipped to 10-9 and if we play our game plan we’ll be fine,” in the third period before they scored four more. Smeltzer said. “It’s not uncommon for us, and we’re beyond Adam Brown, Brody Eastwood and Devon Casey panicking because of it, though sometimes we get finish the season as the sixth, seventh and ninth in trouble,” Smeltzer said. overall scorers in the league, respectively. It’s not ideal, but isn’t from a lack of preparation, Transition player Jesse King will miss the first the coach added. round of the playoffs with Team Canada at the It also happened in the Rocks last game in New under-19 world field lacrosse championships in West. After two periods, New West led 9-4. The Finland, July 12 to 21. Rocks scored five goals in the third period and sports@vicnews.com
Game two
B.C. Junior A Lacrosse Association
SPORTS STATS Lacrosse Western Lacrosse Association
Langley Victoria Burnaby Coquitlam New West. Nanaimo Maple Ridge
GP 14 12 13 12 13 11 13
W 10 7 6 6 6 5 2
L 4 5 5 6 7 5 10
T 0 0 2 0 0 1 1
Pts 20 14 14 12 12 11 5
Recent games: Langley 14 Victoria 11 Victoria 8 Coquitlam 9
GP W L *Coquitlam 21 16 5 *Delta 21 14 5 New West. 21 14 6 Langley 21 12 9 Port Coq. 21 11 10 Victoria 21 9 12 Nanaimo 21 3 17 Burnaby 21 3 18 *First round playoff bye
T 0 2 1 0 0 0 1 0
Pts 32 30 29 24 22 18 7 6
B.C. Intermediate-A Lacrosse Association
Recent games: Victoria 11 Coquitlam 14
GP W L T Pts Richmond 16 13 3 0 26 Coquitlam 16 13 3 0 26 Victoria 16 12 4 0 24 New West 15 9 6 0 18 Maple Ridge 16 9 7 0 18 Langley 16 8 8 0 16 Port Coq. 18 7 11 0 14 Burnaby 15 4 11 0 8 Delta 14 2 12 0 4 Nanaimo 16 2 14 0 4 Recent games: Victoria 23 Burnaby 10
Quarterfinal playoff series (best-of-three) July 14 Victoria at New Westminster, 5 p.m. July 15 New West at Victoria, 5 p.m., Bear Mountain Arena July 17 Victoria at New West, 5 p.m. July 11 Port Coquitlam at Langley July 12 Langley at Port Coquitlam July 14 Port Coquitlam at Langley
Pacfiic Northwest Junior B Lacrosse League GP W L T Pts Westshore 19 16 3 0 32 Peninsula 18 12 5 1 25 Saanich 19 12 6 1 25 Cowichan 18 6 9 3 15 Campbell Riv. 19 4 13 2 10 Nanaimo 19 2 16 1 5