Victoria hosts Coquitlam on Friday night
Every two years, when the Mann Cup is set to be hosted by the Western Lacrosse Association, the WLA teams build up for an arms race. Legs, too, as they try to outrun and outshoot the competition to host the Canadian Senior A championship.
The Victoria Shamrocks have stepped up in their bid to have the Mann Cup come to The Q Centre in September but so too have several other WLA teams. The Shamrocks (5-1-1) play one of those squads, the Coquitlam Adanacs (6-1-1), tonight at The Q Centre in a pivotal match-up.
“It’s not our philosophy, but every second year the level of competition gets higher in the WLA,” said Shamrocks head coach Mike Simpson.
The first big match-up of the season for defending-league champion Victoria was last week, a 12-9 loss to the also-aspiring New Westminster Salmonbellies, who were undefeated at 6-0 heading into Thursday night’s game in the Royal City against the Nanaimo Timbermen (1-6).
“New Westminster is certainly a very strong team,” said Simpson, as that loss ended Victoria’s multiple-season 25-game regular-season unbeaten streak.
But it’s another game, the previous 7-7 draw against the Maple Ridge Burrards that ended Victoria’s 24-game regular-season winning streak, that most irritates the Shamrocks at this point.
“That tie was not great for us and gives us no more room to slip. We can’t give away too many more points if we want to finish first again,” said Simpson.
That makes tonight’s match-up against the soaring Adanacs all that more important.
“Coquitlam is a very good team with an elite goaltender [pro National Lacrosse League star Chris Del Bianco] and we know we have to be at our very best. This is a big test for us,” said Simpson.
The Shamrocks have yet to hit double digits in scoring in any of their games this season, the result of injuries to key forwards, and the shift to a more defensive approach after being outmuscled by the Ontario-champion Six Nations Chiefs in last year’s Mann Cup final.
“We’ve had a sporadic and fluctuating lineup with not a lot of consistency,” said Simpson.
“But we are a heavier and more physical team than we were last season and I like how we defend.”
That is reflected in the Shamrocks having allowed a league-low 51 goals against this season with goaltender Chris Origlieri leading the WLA with a 6.65 goals-against average ahead of Del Bianco’s second-best 7.28 for Coquitlam. The Shamrocks other goaltender, Cam Dunkerley clocks in with a third-leading .804. Origlieri and Del Bianco are also 1-2 in save percentage with the Shamrocks’ shot blocker at .867 to the Adanacs’ standout at .840.
New-addition Shamrocks defenders have been monstrously effective on the back end. They include six-foot-four, 220-pound NLL-pro Elijah Gash, son of 12-season NFL Pro Bowl fullback and Super Bowl champion Sam Gash, six-foot-two, 220-pound Nate Wade, the former Nanaimo Timbermen captain and 2024 WLA all-star, and NLL pro Patrick Kaschalk. They have greatly abetted the reliable returning defenders Nick Preston, Kyle Pepper, Max Wilson, Denton Macdonald, Dallas Wade, Derek Lloyd and Ari Stevens.
It’s the offence that is the bigger issue for Victoria. Getting bigger on defence was the off-season recruiting priority and that seems of have paid off. But that means some transition-game elements the Shamrocks used to rely on for offence have been diminished.
“We play less of a transition game now, which means our offensive players have to carry more of the load [in bringing the ball up-floor and creating chances],” said Simpson.
“We have to add pressure at the front door.”
That has been harder to do with star snipers Jesse King, an all-time Shamrocks and pro NLL scoring great, and Alex Simmons yet to play due to injuries. Claremont Secondary and NCAA Ohio State Buckeyes-product King and Simmons, the former Syracuse NCAA star and 2024 NLL rookie of the year who last season scored the second-most points by a rookie in NLL history with the Albany FireWolves, are expected to join the team soon.
NLL pros Marshal King (24 points), Zach Manns (20), Clarke Petterson (19), Mathieu Gautier (18), Chris Wardle (14) and Patrick Dodds (10) have led the Victoria offence, which has been just good enough, but there is certainly the talent there for more.
“Considering everything, we feel we are right where we need to be, and on schedule to where we want to get to,” said Simpson.
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