Shamrocks Book Ticket To WLA Final

(Photo: Gord Rufh Photography)

Victoria, BC ~ The Victoria Shamrocks knocked off the New Westminster Salmonbellies 11-8 on Thursday night from the Q Centre to punch themselves through to the WLA final against the Langley Thunder.

The Salmonbellies kicked off the game on the front foot with two goals in the first 6:16 of the game. Victoria responded back with their first tally of the evening thanks to a nice shot from Patrick Dodds. The Salmonbellies would restore their two goal lead at 11:22 before Patrick Dodds scored again for Victoria at 16:20, Marshall King did the same at 17:02 to tie the game and Dodds made it a first period hat trick at 19:44 to head to the intermission up 4-3.

"Patrick has been great this entire series and topped it off tonight. Kind of kept us in the game to be honest with you in that first period. I thought he was fantastic," said Shamrocks head coach Mike Simpson after the game.

Victoria continued to pour the offense on in the second frame starting with Marshal King's second of the game at 00:42. Mathieu Gauthier did much of the same at 2:08 before Clarke Petterson added to the Shamrocks lead 35 seconds later to put the home team up 7-3.

New West answered back at 11:23 before Clarke Petterson tickled the twine for the second time at 14:14 to move Victoria's new lead to 8-4 headed to the second break.

The Salmonbellies made the game interesting by scoring three in a row from the start of the third until the 9:01 mark leaving Victoria scoreless for 20:57. The game got a little hairier than the 'Rocks would have liked however Marshal King's third and Clarke Petterson's third would put the game to sleep at 15:11 and 17:28 respectively.

Max Wilson would add an empty netter and Jake Govett would get a consolation goal for the 'Bellies at 19:38 but that was all she wrote. 

The Victoria crowd of 2,217 was about as loud as they have been all season and when asked about the crowd coach Simpson would add that, "There is no question that we have the best fans in the league. It's not even really close and they give us an opportunity and extra jump in our step. We have home floor advantage (in the WLA final) and we need to use it to our advantage."

The Shamrocks will take on the Langley Thunder in the WLA final starting Saturday night from the Q Centre.