Rocks Outlast Adanacs

The Jr. ‘A’ Shamrocks outlasted the Coquitlam Adanacs Sunday at the Q Center, handing the visitors just their third loss of the season, prevailing 7-6 in overtime.

Starting goaltenders were Cameron Dunkerley for the Rocks and Nate Faccin for the visitors and it was Coquitlam getting on the board first, Thomas Semple connecting on a hard, low shot from outside the dotted line at 8:34.  Victoria replied at 16:38, Casey Wilson scoring also from well out and the Rocks took the lead at 18:19 when Austin Madronic tallied unassisted, firing back over the shoulder off a rebound right in front.  Victoria outshot Coquitlam 20-11 in the period and had the slim 1-goal lead after 20 minutes.

Period 2 was all Adanacs as they scored the only 3 goals of the period.  Dennon Armstrong got the score knotted at 2 at 2:41, working to the net.  Josh Jackson gave the visitors the lead at 13:30 off a loose ball and getting in alone.  With less than a second left on the clock Semple picked up his second, crashing the crease to do so.  That made it 4-2 for the Adanacs after a period in which they had the edge in shots 24-16. 

The Shamrocks came to play in the third, flying out of the gate as Wilson picked up his second of the game at 2:51 from the dotted line.  Madronic added his second of the game to tie the score at 4 at the 4:38 mark with a hard, low shot.  Wilson’s hat trick goal put the home team ahead at 7:05 from just inside the dotted line as he seemed to have Faccin’s number.  It took just less than 3 minutes for Coquitlam to answer back, Armstrong getting his second at 10:03 and he re-gained the lead for the visitors at 17:07 with his hat trick goal, both goals coming from very close to the crease.  Just 35 seconds later Wilson got the Rocks back even with his fourth goal, shooting through traffic from the dotted line.  With the score tied after 60 minutes we were going into a 10-minute, no sudden death, overtime.

With Dunkerley standing tall in the Victoria net, Ben Preston connected for the Shamrocks at the 5:35 mark, going to the net and Coquitlam was unable to find an answer, despite having a 10-6 edge in shots in the extra period.

Casey Wilson had the hot hand for the Shamrocks with 4 goals and an assist.  Austin Madronic had 2 goals and 2 assists while Zach Manns also had a 4-point night on 4 assists.  Ben Preston had the other, all important winning goal.  Jackson Boyd picked up a pair of assists and Cameron Dunkerley made 46 saves to pick up the win.

The Jr. ‘A’ Shamrocks are on the road next Saturday as they face the New Westminster Salmonbellies at Queen’s Park Arena.  They return to the Q Center for an all-island match-up Tuesday, July 2 as they host the Nanaimo Timbermen at 8:00 pm.