Islanders Defeat Shamrocks

The Delta Islanders came into the Q Center Tuesday for a rare mid-week encounter and came away with a 9-4 victory.

Starting goaltenders were Angus Snow for the home team and Greyson Beggs for the visitors. It was a closely-contested first period, after which the Shamrocks held a narrow 3-2 lead. Delta opened the scoring at 1:15 Reid Hinds McDonald hammering a shot in from outside the dotted line. Victoria scored the next 3, including one on the power play, starting at 6:59 when team captain Greysen Thompson forced a turnover and rambled in for an unassisted tally. Just 18 seconds later it was Jr. B Tier 1 call-up Jaden Roach intercepting an errant Delta pass and scoring unassisted. Victoria capitalized on the power play at 13:48, Ben Pawluk finishing off some nice passing and getting in close. Delta replied quickly, Levi Crooks cutting the lead to one with a shot from outside the dotted line at 14:10. Shots were 18-12 in favour of the Shamrocks.

The Islanders took control in the middle period scoring the first two and the last 2 goals with a lone Shamrocks marker sandwiched between. Crooks picked up his second just 32 seconds in, a shot Snow got a piece of. Elijah Gill then found the top corner at 1:24 to take the lead 4-3. Victoria got that one back at 8:54, Pawluk with his second putting the ball over Beggs. That was the last Shamrocks goal in the game. Jared Maznik got in close to score at the 17-minute mark and added his second to make it 6-4 for the visitors 24 seconds later.

Period 3 saw just 3 goals, all by Delta and 2 of which came with the man advantage. The first came off the stick of Turner Anderson at 8:39 on the power play and he added his second at 9:51, both fairly long shots. Maznik then collected his third of the game, unassisted and on a 5-on-3 power play at 12:51 to provide the margin of victory. Matthew Denis relieved Snow between the pipes to finish the game. Despite holding a 50-32 edge in shots on goal those shots did not translate into goals.

Ben Pawluk had a pair of goals for the Shamrocks with singles coming from Jaden Roach and Greysen Thompson. Cooper Anderson had another strong game in the faceoff circle, winning 13 of 16.

Next up for the Jr. A Shamrocks are 3 straight road games starting in New Westminster on Sunday, followed by a trip up the Malahat on Thursday, June 25 to face the Nanaimo Timbermen. They will be in Burnaby on Sunday, June 28 before returning to the Q Center on Saturday, July 4 to take on the Coquitlam Adanacs in a 3:30 pm start.

You can catch the Tier 1 Jr. B Shamrocks in action this Saturday, June 20 when they will host the New Westminster Salmonbellies. That game is scheduled for 5 pm at the Juan de Fuca Arena. Please note the change of venue.

- Janice Huckin