Victoria 'Rocks the Mainland

After a 5-2 win last night in Ladner against the Islanders, Victoria had one last game on their first road trip of the season. The Shamrocks played the South Fraser Stickmen two Sundays ago in the second annual Georgia Cup. Victoria took the cup by a score of 14-3, and tonight they met again for the first-of-three regular season match ups.

Both teams came out hard from the get go and when South Fraser got called for a backcheck, Victoria made their move. Matt Yager and Cayle Ratcliff scored, and by the second goal shots were 7-0 in favor of the visitors.

Then the Shamrocks took some time in the box, and Greg Mahony gave the Stickmen a goal with the first shot on net and man it was pretty. Richard Willmott and ex-Shamrock Scott Davidson set Mahony up so all he had to do was swing across the top of the crease, jump up, twist, and release the shot- Matt Flindell had no chance.

The Stickmen celebration was short lived as Victoria captain Cayle Ratcliff threw one in just 20 seconds after the Mahony goal. Matt West-Patrick had a power play marker with a couple of minutes left in the first, to give Victoria a 4-1 lead to go into the second.

Victoria seemed to have a simple, yet effective game plan. Shots on net = more chances of goals. Shots at the end of the first were 24-6 for the 'Rocks. All Victoria's goals against Delta the night before were scored on the power play, so South Fraser needed to make sure they stayed out of the box.

In the second there was a sense of urgency from the Stickmen, and under a minute into the middle frame Scott Davidson rushed the net and scored a great goal on his former team. Travis Voisey got a nice lead pass from Stickmen keeper Mike Lowe for a beauty short handed goal, after Mahony got dinged for back checking.

Davidson added to his point total for the afternoon and managed to put in a shorthanded goal as well to tie the game at four. But just as they did in the first, Victoria answered right back, scoring four un-answered goals to take the lead again 8-4.

There wasn't a lot of action to start the third, you could tell the two teams were a little tired from playing hard in the first forty minutes.

About halfway through the period Sean Messenger and Trent Tabor were beaking at each other for quite some time and decided to do something about it. The fight was stopped before anyone could lay some effective punches but the automatic nod goes to Messenger- He took his lid off as soon as it was agreed there would be a fight, but Tabor made a point of keeping his on and continued to throw punches.

After the scrap it was a barrage of penalties I won't bother you with (check the boxscore if you want the details) but just to give you an idea, there were 20 penalties handed out between the two teams in the third.

Tom Faulkner scored an unassisted goal and a power play goal to bring the Shamrocks total to 10; and Mahony added a short handed goal to his tally, again with finesse by waiting, jumping, twisting, and shooting.

With 3:33 to go, Messenger and Jordan Innes were in the box for South Fraser for a delay of game and holding penalty when all hell broke loose on the floor. Before I could even stand up all three Stickmen players were involved with the five Shamrock players on the floor and the refs were trying to pick out who to break up first. Jordan Lypchuk (SF) fought Cayle Ratcliff, Joel Henry (Vic) fought Jordy Willing, and Travis Voisey (SF) and Kory Kowalyk scrapped it out. Everyone involved got five and a game, and when Stickmen Head Coach Curtis Gulliford told the refs what he thought of the way they handled the fights, he got thrown out as well.

Lots of action to end the third, but the score was over and done with. Final was 10-5 for Victoria, but most notably in this game was the final shots on net. Stickmen goalie Mike Lowe faced an unbelievable 65 shots in his sixty minutes on the floor, compared to Matt Flindell who saw 31. When Lowe saw the ball he stopped it; he had little trouble with first shots, but when Victoria would grab their own rebound it was trouble.

With 96 total shots on net I did expect a higher scoring game, but was pleased about how enjoyable this game was to watch. Quick pace kept the crowd into it, with lots of contact to make it interesting.

South Fraser plays Coquitlam at home this Thursday May 1st when they take on the Adanacs, and Victoria hosts Nanaimo on May 2nd at 8PM.