Sunday, August 10, 2014 - Submitted by Andrew McMillan
For Sunday’s game three at the Q Center in Victoria, the New Westmisnter Salmonbellies were in tough. Down 2-0 to their hosts, the Victoria Shamrocks, all remaining games of the series would be considered must-wins. To get there, the ‘Bellies would need to shut down the ‘Rocks’ arsenal including Jesse King, Corey Small and Dhane Smith, the WLA’s leading playoff performers. Although New West had never beaten the Shamrocks through the regular season, they’d gotten close on two occasions: 9-7 on June 5th and 11-10 on June 20th. That, combined with their efforts through the first two games indicated that the ‘Bellies could reasonably get over the hump. The other side of the coin would have Victoria continuing to roll and take a three game series lead thanks to the efforts of their sharpshooters and goaltender Matt Flindell.
The first goal of the game came on the power play just 39 seconds into the period. The goal came from Shamrock superstar Rhys Duch who got some room after a couple picks on the right shooter spot. About three and a half minutes later, Brendan Ranford got some room, weaseled his way in close, but was denied by Matt Flindell. The rebound popped out to Karsen Leung who raced up floor, then scored as he was running across the dotted lines. The Shamrocks continued to roll as King and Small played pick and roll to where Small ended up alone in front and was shut out by New West’s starting goaltender Alexis Buque. The ball popped up into the air and right into the stick of a creeping Chris Wardle who gave the Shamrocks a three-goal lead, 7:25 into the first period. After another scramble in Victoria’s end, the Shamrock defenders got the ball out and into the stick of Tyler Hass, part of a 3-on-1 heading the other way which resulted in another fast break goal. Victoria’s fifth goal of the period came courtesy of Leung who scored courtesy of a dump pass from Hass. That would be it for scoring after 20 minutes, with the Shamrocks leading 5-0 and recording 17 shots to the ‘Bellies’ 12.
Heading into the second period, the Bellies would be the first to strike in an attempt to claw back into the game. After scoring four goals in game two, junior call-up Josh Byrne would get back onto the score sheet with the ‘Bellies’ first goal of the game by streaking toward the goal then shooting a low goal past Flindell. Jordan McBride would go on to score New West’s second goal of the game to bring the visitors within three. Scott Ranger extended that lead back to four goals after Duch set a pick on the power play to allowing Ranger to step in and laser one by Buque. Keegan Bal would get his first of three goals on the night when, after some pretty passing, he bounced one low on Flindell. Bellie Colton Clark was spotted by Ranford who fed him the ball before he buried it from the slot to make it 6-4 for Victoria. Duch squashed any momentum by whipping a hard pass down to Small on the crease who one timed a hard shot for the Shamrocks’ seventh goal of the game. After some sloppy ball movement on the power play, New West got a Victoria rebound and tried to clear the ball only to see King pick it off, dish it down low to Small who squeaked the ball by Buque. Bal came up with one of the prettier goals of the game: after being knocked to the ground, he held onto the ball, slid away from the goal on his stomach and lobbed a pass to a McBride who dove and dipped and dunked one past Flindell. Following the ensuing faceoff, Jesse Fehr streaked down his wrong side and bounced a shot home to finish the scoring of the second period and reduce the lead to two goals. Shots during the second period were tied at 19 with the ‘Bellies wining the period scoring 6-3.
Though the ‘Bellies had a big second period to follow their shutout first, the Shamrocks made a goaltending switch and put Cody Hagedorn in net. After beating his man baseline, Duch would open the scoring by skipping through the crease to get his second goal of the night. Bal took advantage of a 4-on-4 opportunity, moving around his man down low, then backpedalling away from the crease and bouncing another goal past Hagedorn to keep the ‘Bellies within two. King would open the gap back up to three goals with his first goal of the night, an impeccably placed shot that sailed past Buque to put the score at 10-7. Following the King goal, Duch would round out the Victoria goal scoring with his third of the night this time coming from well outside the dotted lines. At 17:47, the ‘Bellies pulled their goalie for an extra attacker and Keegan Bal took advantage with another pretty goal where he faked a hard outside shot, got his defender to bite, then stepped around and fired one low to score New West’s final goal of the night.
The final score of the night was 11-8 for Victoria. Despite being down five goals to start the same, New West put in a solid effort trying to claw their way back. After three games, the Victoria Shamrocks have a stranglehold on the series. The final shots of the game were 49-42 for the Shamrocks.
