Big Weekend For The Rocks

The Jr. Shamrocks had a great weekend bring their record to 2 - 1.

It all started when the Rocks evened up their record at 1-1 with a convincing 11-3 win over an under-manned Port Coquitlam Saints squad Saturday at the Q Centre. The Rocks held period leads of 2-0 and 6-1 on route to the victory.

Charles Claxton got the start between the pipes for the Shamrocks and it was Andrew Gallant his counterpart at the other end of the floor. There was no scoring until 16:11 of the opening period when the Rocks’ Ryan Lewis found the back of the net with a hard overhand shot from the slot. That goal came on the power play and was followed by another power play marker off the stick of Victoria’s captain Max Fredrickson at 18:38 as he stole the ball got in alone and scored diving across the front of the crease. Shots on goal favoured the home team by a 15-6 margin. The Saints started the game with just 14 runners and lost 1 to a game misconduct at 15:46 of the period.

Period 2 started with the Saints getting within a goal, Chase Malcolm tallying at 8:24 with a hard shot from outside the dotted line. That was all they would get in that period as the home team rattled off 4 straight before the period ended. First it was Jamie Jensen finishing off some good ball control to score at 9:13. Just 30 seconds later, Cole Pickup fired a high, hard shot from the dotted line to increase the Victoria lead to 4-1. At 13:28, Colin Bashford notched a power play marker and Steve Ackinclose finished the second period scoring at 13:59. PoCo was down to just 12 runners with the ejection of yet another player. Victoria once again outshot the visitors 23-12 and were full value for the 6-1 lead.

As in period 2, the visitors scored first in the final frame, Travis Allen scoring at the 7:52 mark. The Rocks took over once again, scoring 5 of the next 6 to put the victory away as play got pretty ugly at times. Pickup, who was the recipient of much of the extracurricular attention, picked up his second goal of the contest at 9:35, getting in close. Bradon Senft added another at 9:52 with a quick stick from the side of the net and Jensen added his second at 10:36 on a run, the Rocks scoring 3 times in just over a minute. Rees Cullen added to the lead at 15:16 with a hard overhand shot. The visitors got one more back, Tanner Olsen faking low and beating Claxton high at 16:16. An unassisted tally by Bashford, his second of the night, closed out the victory at 18:43 of the final period. The Saints were unable to take advantage of a series of Shamrocks penalties as the penalty killers worked hard to mitigate the damage.

Three players led the Shamrocks offensively with a pair of goals – Colin Bashford, Cole Pickup and Jamie Jensen, the latter also adding an assist. Singles came from Rees Cullen and Max Fredrickson who each had 2 helpers with Steve Ackinclose, Ryan Lewis and Bradon Senft adding singles. Intermediate ‘A’ call-up Eddie Smith added a couple of assists.

The Shamrocks managed a win on the road Sunday against the defending league champions, the Coquitlam Adanacs as they needed overtime to pull out an 8-6 victory in a penalty-filled contest. Ryan Lewis led the way with a hat trick while Cole Pickup and Max Fredrickson each had 5-point nights with 2 goals and 3 assists and 1 goal and 4 assists respectively. Newcomer Lucas Crowther made his debut and chipped in 1 goal and 2 helpers. Tyson Fair added the other Shamrocks goal.

Next up for the Jr. Rocks is a double-header next weekend. Saturday they will host the Langley Thunder at 5:00 pm at the Q Centre and they follow that up with a 5:00 game Sunday at home when the Delta Islanders will be the visitors.

Janice Huckin