Victoria Victorious in Pre-Season Action

Sunday at the North Surrey Rec Center was the stage for the second annual Georgia Cup Challenge between the South Fraser Stickmen and the Victoria Shamrocks.

Heavy traffic from Tsawwassen held up the Shamrocks, and left the Stickmen and their fans anxious to start the game. After a half hour delay, the game was underway and fans were getting their fix, after a long eight month off-season.

Both teams have seen some major changes since last year, most notably South Fraser who has been very active in moving players both in and out of the organization in the pre-season. Both teams looked ready to get the ball rolling, and see just how it all would mold together in a game time situation.

As expected, Victoria came out strong. After Stickman Ryan Harwood, and Shamrock captain Cayle Ratcliff got thrown in the box just a couple of minutes in for roughing; Victoria was first on the sheet with a goal from Matt Yager.

Thirty seconds later, Tanner Kittler put another one past new Stickman goalie Mike Lowe, and to end the period Victoria took a six nothing lead with seven shots on net, thanks to goals from Graeme Scott(intermediate), Tom Faulker, Myles Kenny, and Joel Henry.

"Even with twenty shots on the Shamrock net, South Fraser couldn't catch a break- lots of posts, but no breaks."

There was also quite an impressive play in the first I’m hoping to see more of. Shamrock intermediate Casey Jackson came around the top of the crease just to the right as if he was going to unleash a shot on Lowe, and on his backswing- managed a perfect flip pass over to Joel Henry, who was in the perfect spot behind him to take a shot. A beautiful play that made the crowd want more.

To start the second, Victoria put in their intermediate goalie Rob McAllan to see some Jr action, and his team backed him up with two goals from captain Cayle Ratcliff, and a third from Rhys Jones.

After a couple of high sticking and slashing penalties, South Fraser calmed down and started to focus on getting on the board. After Dave Johnson got called for a high stick after crunching a Victoria player, Mike Lowe looked more comfortable between the iron, making five key saves.

But halfway through the second, Stickmen head coach Curtis Gulliford made a goalie switch and brought in Graham Chandler. Under a minute after the switch, Chris Martin got a great feed from Ryan Harwood, and threw in the Stickmens first goal of the evening, a short-handed marker on Johnson’s penalty.

South Fraser captain Jordy Willing had three breakouts in the second half of the game, finding the post each time. “That ‘ding’ was getting pretty annoying” he said after the game, “very frustrating, when all you want to do is find the back of the net”.

The third frame saw five more goals for the visiting Shamrocks. Cayle Ratcliff had another unassisted goal to give him a hat trick on the afternoon, and Joel Henry had three more goals in the final period, to give him four goals total.

After Trent Tabor got called for unsportsmanlike and got a four minute major, Graham Weidenhammer rifled one from just outside the point with a great feed from Richard Willmott and Andrew Bromley(intermediate). Just before the game ended, Ryan Harwood was perched at the right spot on the outside of the crease, and threw in a power play goal with 1:17 to go.

The final result of 14-3, was not what the Stickmen wanted, but it looked to be a learning curve they were glad to be rid of in exhibition game. Final shots were 37-57 in favor of the Shamrocks.

South Fraser will be in action this weekend at the Ball Breaker tournament in Port Coquitlam, they face the Adanacs on Friday the 18th at 6pm, and on Sunday the 20th face the Poco Saints in the late match-up at 8:40PM.