The Victoria Shamrocks scored six times
in the first period to produce a lead they would never relinquish as
they beat the Six Nations Chiefs 8-6 in Game 3 of the 2013 Mann Cup
in Victoria, taking a 2-1 lead in the best of seven Canadian senior
lacrosse championships in the process. Cory Conway scored 3
goals in the first period and Jeff Shattler led the Shamrocks
with 2 goals and 4 assists for the game. Kasey Beirnes and
Stephen Keogh each scored twice for Six Nations while Colin
Doyle had 4 assists, which moved him past J.J. Johnston
into eight place in all-time Mann Cup scoring with 109 points (50
goals, 59 assists).
“There's a long way to go,” said
Victoria coach Bob Heyes of needing two more wins to claim the
title. “It was a battle tonight. That's exactly what a Mann Cup
game is all about. We came out in the first period, I kind of focused
the boys and said you've got to come out and have a good first
period. We had that then just kind of hung on a little bit there.”
The Shamrocks seemed to be able to
create some seams to get shots off from mid-range and buried five of
them in the set offence in the first period. Six Nations pulled
starting goalie Evan Kirk after the fifth goal, although their
coach Rich Kilgour wasn't laying the blame on his goaltender.
“That first period really wasn't his fault,” Kilgour said. “They
were good quality shots. It wasn't like any hit him in the belly and
trickled in. They were right in the corner. It was more I think on
the defence than on Kirky. Sometimes you've just got to pull the
trigger on something like that to get the boys going again. It's been
done a million times in all sports. It's nothing on Kirky, but at the
same time, we've got to try to change momentum.”
Brandon Miller replaced Kirk and
stopped 28 of the 31 shots he faced, but the Chiefs weren't able to
climb out of the hole they had dug for themselves in the first
period. Stephen Keogh got things going early in the second,
scoring just 58 seconds in, but then both defences and goalies were
unbeatable for most of the rest of the period. Victoria restored its
5-goal lead when Shattler scored coming off the bench in transition,
taking a pass from Karsen Leung and bouncing a shot that went
in just under the cross-bar in the final minute to make the score 7-2
heading to the third.
After Scott Ranger opened the
final frame with an early goal, the Chiefs rebounded with 3 goals in
three minutes to climb back into contention at 8-5 by the six-minute
mark. The Shamrocks defence settled down, though, and held Six
Nations in check until they got a goal with the extra attacker on the
floor in the last minute.
Victoria defender Jon Harnett
said his unit got together after the 3-goal run and were determined
to stop the bleeding. “After that third goal there, [goalie Matt
Vinc] came for water and he kind of settled us down a bit. And
leaders like Scott Carnegie and Dan McRae were a
calming influence on the bench. We just got back to Shamrocks defence
and played well for the last 10 or 12 minutes.”
“I felt last game we got a bit away
from [solid team defence], they got us spread out a bit,” Harnett
said. “Tonight it was a five-man unit and Vino's going to stop
those outside shots. When they did get inside, he made some big
saves. We just had to regroup. Game 3 is a pivotal game and we wanted
to have a chance to go up 3-1 and we got the job done with a quick
start.”
Doyle acknowledged that he was not
happy after the game, but said “but I'll be fine tomorrow morning
and ready to go.” The Chiefs can carry some positives from Game 3
into Tuesday night's Game 4, he said, including the fact that Keogh
and Beirnes, both of who had been struggling to find the net in the
first two games, connected twice each. “Very important, because
we're not going to win the series if everybody's not scoring.”
Doyle said. “Cody Jamieson won't win us the series on his
own. I think maybe we became a culprit of that at the beginning of
the series. He has broad shoulders, but we've got to get everybody
involved and everybody scoring. I think when we do that we're a tough
bunch to stop. That's been our M.O. all year long and that's what
it's going to take to win the series, so those guys are going to be
very important for us.”
Kilgour said after the game he'll be
going “Right back to Kirky. I already told Kirky you're back in
tomorrow, just refocus and be ready. He hasn't gotten pulled all
year. It's been 20-some games. Sooner or later you're going to have a
bad night. And again, it wasn't even a bad night, it was just a tough
loss. I know he'll be ready to go tomorrow.”
Game 4 goes Tuesday night at 7pm
PT/10pm ET and can be seen via live
pay per view webcast. For more about Game 3 and the Mann Cup as a
whole, go to IL Indoor and the
2013 Mann Cup web site.
