Manns' Four-Goal Night Lifts Shamrocks Past Elimination, Sets Up Game Six

Zach Manns delivered the biggest game of his season when Victoria needed it most, scoring four goals and adding two assists as the Shamrocks staved off elimination with an 8-4 win over the Coquitlam Adanacs on Sunday at The Q Centre. The win snaps a three-game Coquitlam winning streak and trims the Adanacs' series lead to 3-2, sending the WLA Championship Series back to the Poirier Sports Complex for game six on Tuesday. A crowd of 2,531 was on hand to watch Victoria's season stay alive.

Coquitlam came out hard, just as it had in games three and four. Matthew Delmonico opened the scoring at 4:59, assisted by Remo Schenato, and the Adanacs held that lead until Brodie Wade tied it for Victoria at 15:11 off helpers from Manns and Luke Pilcher. Coquitlam answered with two goals in the final five minutes of the period, Adam Noakes finishing a Kean Moon feed at 15:39 before Jalen Chaster made it 3-1 at 17:10, assisted by Noakes and Moon, and the Adanacs carried that two-goal cushion into the first intermission.

Manns got the Shamrocks moving in the second, scoring at 1:25 with assists from Marshal King and Mathieu Gautier to make it 3-2. Moon restored Coquitlam's two-goal lead at 8:14, assisted by Thomas Semple and David Charney, but Victoria kept coming. Manns struck again at 13:12, assisted by Chris Wardle and Nick Chaykowsky, and Kyle Pepper tied it at 4-4 on an unassisted goal just over two minutes later. The score held there through the second intermission.

The third period belonged to Victoria. Marshal King put the Shamrocks ahead for good at 8:50 with a power-play goal, assisted by Pilcher and Wardle, and set up the next one as well — Pilcher buried a goal at 11:29, assisted by King and Manns, with Coquitlam having pulled its goaltender for an extra attacker during a delayed penalty on Nathan Chalmers. The Victoria goal washed out the infraction. Manns made it 7-4 at 13:24, assisted by King, before capping his four-goal night with a shorthanded marker at 19:21, assisted by Nick Preston, that put the game out of reach.

Chris Origlieri made 44 saves to earn first-star honours, and Christian Del Bianco stopped 34 of 42 shots at the other end for Coquitlam, whose 49 shots on net gave the Adanacs the edge on the shot clock despite the loss. Manns' four goals and two assists were good for a game-high six points and second-star recognition, while Coquitlam's Kean Moon rounded out the three stars with a goal and two assists.

The series now heads back to Coquitlam, where the Adanacs will look to close it out and the Shamrocks will look to force a game seven. Game six goes Tuesday night at the Poirier Sports Complex, streaming live at WLALacrosse.com. A Victoria win sends the series back to The Q Centre for a winner-take-all game seven on Thursday.