Superman arrived in the nick of time.
Actually, 0.4 of a nick.
That was the time left on the clock Sunday night after Curtis “Superman” Dickson tucked the game-winning goal into the top corner of the Victoria Shamrock’s goal. It gave the Maple Ridge Burrards a 10-9 win over the top team in the Western Lacrosse Association.
Sunday night’s game was a clash of two teams with everything to prove.
The Shamrocks came into the game leading the league with a 7-2 record, and needing to win the season series against the Burrards to ensure home advantage in the playoffs.
The Burrards entered the game 5-4, and having lost three of their past four games.
The game was tied 6-6 after two periods, and Victoria scored 25 seconds into the third period to take the lead.
The Burrards had glorious scoring opportunities that went unconverted in the third. Brandon Bertoia was set up in front, and put a shot off the crossbar. Jonathan Munk and Garrett McIntosh broke in two-on-one, and Munk’s shot was stopped. Colton Porter was in alone on goal, but couldn’t beat the Shamrock’s netminder.
To say they were playing a tough goaltender would be an understatement. Victoria’s Matt Vinc was the best goaltender in the National Lacrosse League last season. The Rochester Knighthawk keeper led the circuit in goals against average (10.17), save percentage (0.803), minutes played (955.29) and beat an 11-year-old record for saves in a season with 662 in 16 games.
Finally Ridge tied it when Dickson drove to the net, then kicked a pass back to Jarrett Davis for a clean look at the goal, and his perfectly placed shot beat Vinc.
Dickson gave the Burrards an 8-7 lead with a shifty one-on-one move to beat a defender and a well-placed shot, but Victoria tied it 8-8 with six minutes to play.
Rookie Ben McIntosh made it 9-8 for the Burrards, finishing off some slick passing and scoring his third goal of the game. There was 4:01 left to play.
Ben’s big brother Garrett McIntosh also produced one of the game’s memorable moments. Vinc came out to the side boards to play a loose ball, and the meaner McIntosh steamed into the goaltender for a jolting bodycheck.
Unfortunately he was penalized for interference, in a call that was protested by the home team. Fifteen seconds later, the Shamrock power play clicked and it was 9-9.
The game went back and forth, and appeared headed for overtime. The Burrards got the ball back in their own end with seven seconds left, and moved it to Dickson, and he streaked toward the goal.
“I was going to take a shot if it was open, or look cross-crease,” said Dickson after the game. He buried it just above Vinc’s left shoulder, with less than a second left.
“That was cutting it pretty close,” he said.
“Superman flew, and we won the game,” summarized coach Daren Fridge.
Dickson finished the game with four goals and four assists, and leads the WLA with 70 points in 10 games – 20 points ahead of second place.
“The guy’s a machine,” observed Bertoia. “It’s a big win.”
The Shamrocks are still in first place at 7-3, but the second-place Burrards, at 6-4, won the season series against them two games to one.
Bertoia said the difference between this weekend’s win and last Friday night’s loss in Victoria was fundamentals.
“It’s getting back to the basics on offence and on defence,” he said. “It’s just a couple of breaks here and there.”
Coach/GM Daren Fridge liked his team’s composure, in a game that had a playoff atmosphere.
“We didn’t get rattled or lose our discipline. We stayed focussed,” he said. “That’s what a playoff game looks like – a tight battle.”
It was a hard-checking game with a vicious edge. But Dickson, who got a lot of extra attention from the Shamrocks, had no complaints.
“That’s the game of lacrosse – you know you’re going to get it, and you give it back,” he said. “And you shove it down their throats at the end.”
The Burrards will have a chance to take a firm hold on second place at the Langley Rec Centre on July 3 in a 7:45 p.m. game. The third-place Thunder are just a point back of the Burrards, with a game in hand.
Then Sunday, July 7 will bring the Thunder to Planet Ice for a rematch at 6:45 p.m.