Shawn Slaght, All Lacrosse All The Time – A Division of the Edge of Philly Sports Network
The Langley Thunder have put the Victoria Shamrocks on the brink of elimination from the WLA playoffs.
A huge second period where the Thunder outscored the Shamrocks 6-1 led them to a 10-8 win on Saturday night in Langley. The Thunder now lead the series 3-2 with Game 6 going Sunday night in Victoria.
It wasn’t easy sledding for the Thunder, however. They found themselves down 5-2 early in the second period before going on an eight-goal run between the second and third periods.
Victoria had a hard time containing Curtis Dickson as he finished the game with two goals and five assists. Frank Scigliano got the win between the pipes for Langley, stopping 37 of 48 shots. Colin Jeffrey was bombarded with shots in Victoria’s goal as he stopped 45 of 55 shots in the loss.
Shamrocks take early lead
The first period went scoreless for 9:17 before Langley broke the ice with a goal from Chase Scanlan. Twenty seconds later Connor Robinson found the back of the net to give the Thunder a 2-0 cushion.
After that, it was all Shamrocks. Jacob Ruest would get them within one at 9:58 and Rhys Duch tied it up on the power play at 16:16.
Chris Wardle scored the go-ahead goal at 17:23 and Brad Kri rounded out the scoring at 18:27 to make it 4-2 for the Shamrocks at the first intermission.
Thunder begin the comeback
Ben McCullough opened the second-period scoring to extend Victoria’s lead to 5-2, but after that Langley would go on an eight-goal run.
Penalty troubles plagued the Shamrocks. At 2:32, Steve Priolo took a holding call, which Scanlan capitalized on at 3:10. Priolo would then take a slashing call at 8:17 and Dane Dobbie scored on the two-man advantage at 8:36 to make it 5-4. Dobbie would add another at 12:03 and we were all tied up 5-5.
Dylan Kinnear scored what would be the go-ahead 43 seconds later followed by Erik Maas at 17:27 to make it 7-5 for Langley. Dickson would round at the scoring to give Langley an 8-5 advantage with 20 minutes left to go in the game.
Shamrocks’ comeback falls short
The third period went scoreless until the 8:20 mark when Langley extended its lead to 9-5 with a goal from Dickson. Robinson would round out the eight-goal run at 9:43.
Victoria finally got back on the board at 12:43 with a goal from Brad McCulley. With the extra attacker on the floor, Duch made the score 10-7.
Larson Sundown scored with the extra attacker with 2:06 left in the game, but Victoria’s comeback came up short. The Shamrocks are on the brink of elimination heading into Game 6.
Three Stars
- Curtis Dickson, Langley Thunder
- Connor Robinson, Langley Thunder
- Rhys Duch, Victoria Shamrocks
Top Scorers
Langley Thunder
Curtis Dickson, 2g 5a
Connor Robinson, 2g 3a
Dane Dobbie, 2g 2a
Chase Scanlan, 2g 2a
Dylan Kinnear, 1g 3a
Victoria Shamrocks
Rhys Duch, 2g 1a
Chris Wardle, 1g 2a
Jesse King, 3a
Don’t forget to check us out every Sunday night at 9pm (ET)
Shawn Slaght has been a sports reporter across the Canadian prairies for over 10 years and has experience covering everything from junior hockey to World Cup skiing to all levels of lacrosse. He is the Saskatchewan correspondent for All Lacrosse All The Time.
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