Story by Ian McNaughton/Victoria Shamrocks. Photo credit Jay Wallace/Victoria Shamrocks.

It was another outstanding effort for the Victoria Shamrocks as they took down the Nanaimo Timbermen by a score of 12-7. After Wednesday, the Shamrocks currently have a 3-1 series lead with an opportunity to clinch a spot in the WLA Finals on Friday night at The Q Centre. The Shamrocks were laser-focused the entire game and never found themselves behind - from beginning to the end. Victoria has won 3 straight games and one could argue that the ‘Rocks have been the best team in every game so far in the series. There was no doubt that the Shamrocks were the best team on Tuesday. 

The ‘Rocks revved up the scoring early with Rhys Duch scoring just 37 seconds into the opening frame. Rob Hellyer and Jesse King also added first period goals, but the Shamrocks found themselves tied at 3 with the Timbermen. Colton Clark had two goals in the period for Nanaimo while Dane Sorensen scored a shorthanded goal. It was the second period which was the breakthrough period for the Shamrocks.

The Shamrocks busted the door wide open, scoring 7 second period goals, including 3 powerplay goals. The ‘Rocks managed to chase away starting Timbermen netminder, Charles Claxton, after the 7th goal - which was one of two of Chris Wardle’s goals in the game. Nanaimo replaced Claxton with backup Mike DeGirolamo for the second straight game and made 19 of 24 saves in the final 30 minutes of the game.

Jesse King and Rob Hellyer each had a hat-trick and were named first and second stars respectively. King finished the night with 6 points while Hellyer had 5. Hellyer completed Tuesday’s game as the points leader in the playoffs so far reaching 21 points already. As expected, the Frank Crane Arena witnessed another strong performance from Shamrocks goalie Adam Shute as he made 36 of 43 saves between the pipes.