These two teams battled all year and it came down to the very last day of the season to decide who got the second seed in the WLA. Burnaby won the season series between these two teams, taking games 12-11 and 10-8 while Victoria won the first meeting 14-8.
The Shamrocks have one of the deepest offenses in the league aside from the Langley Thunder. Victoria had three players in the top ten for scoring this season. The Shamrocks also have Matt Vinc in net who recently won the Champions Cup with Rochester. Vinc has been solid so far this season posting a 8.44 G.A.A. The Shamrocks will try to play an up tempo game and use their significant forward depth to defeat Burnaby. The Shamrocks offense is a three pronged attack with Corey Small, Corey Conway and Scott Ranger. All three of these players have proven they can hit the back of the net at will and create offense. These three players will be a handful for every team in the WLA playoffs this year and they will need to create space against Burnaby to have success. Victoria definitely has the speed advantage so they will be able to take advantage in the transition game in order to create offense. Expect Victoria to come out motivated to not repeat their mistakes from last year, where they got upset in the playoffs.
The Lakers have been one of the most consistent teams this year and are considered the dark horse to win the WLA championship. The Lakers have been powered by the duo of Scott Jones and Dane Stevens who have been a great one two punch for the Lakers. The Lakers defense has also been solid lead by Matt Beers. The Lakers will first and foremost need to contain Corey Small and Corey Conway while limiting the chances of Scott Ranger. If the Lakers can do this they will give themselves a chance to win. The Lakers will want to be physical and make Victoria pay for every shot. In net the Lakers have had good goal tending from Dan Lewis, who posted a 9.15 G.A.A. The Lakers have proven they can have success against Shamrocks as they were able to defeat them twice this season. The Lakers have the talent to compete with Victoria but if they get drawn into an offensive battle for seven games their offense will begin to sputter while Victoria’s will only get stronger.
In the end Victoria will win this series in seven games as the Shamrocks have a deeper offense which gives them more options and makes it hard for the Lakers to shut them down. The Lakers will push the Shamrocks to their limit as they are solid in all areas of the game. The Shamrocks though will not be denied their chance at the WLA final this year
