Shamrocks Strike First in Semi-final

The Jr. A Shamrocks and Port Coquitlam Saints tangled in game 1 of their best-of-five league semi-final series at the Q Center Saturday and it was the Shamrocks striking late to squeeze out an 11-9 victory.

Greyson Beggs got the start in goal for Victoria and Waukigan Shognosh for the visitors. The home team struck first, Marcelo Carreiro getting in close at 1:59. PoCo replied at 5:42, Oskar Lucas also getting in close. At 10:03 the Saints took a 2-1 lead, Lincoln Wall going on a run and 22 seconds later Josh Mills added a third straight from the dotted line. Evan McGregor drew the Rocks within a goal at 11:35 with a power play goal late in the 30-second window from outside the dotted line. Ryan Lowe then knotted the score at 3 at 13:50, getting in close and shooting low. Mills rounded out first period scoring, picking up his second at 14:19, capping a combined run of 5 goals in 4:16. Shots favored the Saints 18-11 and they had the 4-3 advantage after 20 minutes.

Port Coquitlam got a power play goal from Wall 1:29 into the middle frame, reaching around from behind the net. Victoria got a big goal from defender Phillip Busenius at 4:26, diving across. Mills struck again at 6:48 for the visitors from outside the dotted line – that gave him the hat trick and his team the 2-goal lead once again. The Shamrocks replied with a pair, the first a highlight reel goal from Dylan Anderson at 9:05. Dawson Wade got the score even at 13:50 and that was how things stood going into the second intermission. The score was tied at 6 and shots were 35-27 for PoCo.

Period 3 belonged to the Shamrocks despite running into penalty trouble late. Lowe picked up his second, getting in close at 1:47. Quinn Cramb scored a short-handed marker at 4:26 combining with another standout defender, Parker Sorenson on a breakaway. Unfortunately Wall did manage to reply for the Saints on that power play to make the score 8-7 Shamrocks. The home team increased that lead with the next 2 goals. Jett Klassen finished off some nice tic-tac-toe passing to get the ball behind Shognosh. McGregor added his second of the contest, an unassisted power play tally, at 9:14 with some nifty stick work in close. Port Coquitlam crept back into the game as Mills scored his fourth at 16:18 with an extra attacker on the floor. Tyson Fontenia then found the back of the net at the 17-minute mark. Just 5 seconds later one player from each team was ejected with 5-minute fighting majors and game misconducts and Victoria was also assessed an additional 5-minute high-sticking penalty. At 18:25 an additional minor penalty gave the Saints a 5-on-3 advantage but Greyson Beggs was outstanding and the penalty kill team did their job and managed a buzzer beater off the stick of Klassen, his second, into the empty net to collect the hard-fought 11-9 win.

Victoria was led offensively by Evan McDougall with 2 goals and 2 assists, Jett Klassen with 2 goals and 1 helper, Dylan Anderson with 3 points on a goal and 2 assists and Ryan Lowe with 2 goals. Quinn Cramb, Dawson Wade and Phillip Busenius each had a goal and an assist while Marcelo Carreiro had the other Shamrocks goal. Nearly every player on the roster had a point. Cooper Anderson went 12 for 21 in the faceoff circle. Greyson Beggs had 39 saves, many of the spectacular variety especially as the clock ran down.

Game 2 of the series takes place in Port Coquitlam Sunday with game 3 back at the Q Center on Tuesday, July 21 at 5:00 pm.

The other semi-final series featuring the Coquitlam Adanacs and the Langley Thunder begins Sunday.

- Janice Huckin