Shamrocks Closing in on Second Place

As the Jr. A season winds down, the Victoria Shamrocks hosted the Port Coquitlam Saints Saturday in a battle that may determine second place and home floor advantage in the first round of playoffs. Victoria held period leads of 5-1 and 8-1 before penalty problems arose and they scraped out an 8-6 victory.

Ashton Brown took up the crease position for PoCo and Greyson Beggs got the nod for the Shamrocks. There was no scoring in the first half of the opening period, a bit of a rarity but it was Victoria finally getting on the board at 12:10 on a bouncer in close. Parker Sorenson made it 2-0 at 13:14 when he intercepted a pass in his own end and went coast to coast for an unassisted tally. Just 17 seconds later team captain Greyson Thompson opened up a 3-goal lead getting in close. A 5-minute penalty to the Saints’ Levi Touhey gave the Shamrocks an opportunity to add 2 more power play goals and they did just that, the first coming from Carter Quested at 17:55 with a bullet from the dotted line and the second from Jett Klassen on a quick stick from the side at 18:49. McGregor was replaced by Waukiigan Shognosh in goal for the Saints and Lincoln Wall finally got the visitors on the board at 19:12, diving into the crease.

Brown returned to the Port Coquitlam crease to begin the second period which saw just 3 goals scored, all by the Shamrocks. Evan McDougall made it 6-1 with another power play goal at 7:07 going to the net. Thompson picked up his second of the game at 7:19 with a low shot from inside the dotted line. The game of musical goaltenders continued for the Saints as Shognosh returned and would finish the game. Victoria did score once more, McDougall collecting his second at 12:45 with the teams playing 4-on-4 and sending the Shamrocks to the dressing room with an 8-1 lead after 40 minutes.

The tide really turned in the final period as Victoria took 5 of 7 penalties and surrendered 5 unanswered power play goals beginning at 5:43 with Josh Mills’ goal. Not only was there a Shamrock player in the box but an additional delayed penalty had the Saints with an extra attacker on the floor. At 7:16 Wall picked up his second of the game, Oscar Lucas then cut the deficit to 4 at 7:43. Wall collected his hat trick goal at 8:20 and Mills closed the scoring at 17:14 to close the gap to a pair but Victoria would hold on. Shots were 53-35 for the Shamrocks over 60 minutes.

Evan McDougall led Victoria offensively with 2 goals and 2 assists. Greyson Thompson had a pair of goals with 1 helper while Ryan Lowe and Carter Quested also had 3 points on a goal and 2 assists. Jett Klassen chipped in 1 of each, Parker Sorenson a goal, Quinn Cramb and Dawson Wade 2 assists each. Cooper Anderson won 13 of 17 faceoffs and Greyson Beggs made 29 saves to pick up the win.

Victoria will be in Delta Monday to face the Islanders to wrap up their regular season. A win there should assure them of a second place finish. It looks very likely that they will face these same Port Coquitlam Saints, however, there is still mathematically a chance for Langley to creep into third place. Stay tuned. The final regular season games will be played on Thursday with playoffs likely to begin the weekend of July 18.

- Janice Huckin