The Maple Ridge Burrards will be heading into Tuesday night’s playoff game against the Shamrocks tied in the series.
Following Friday evening’s double overtime loss to the Victoria Shamrocks 7-6, the Burrards rebounded back on Sunday with a well-fought 10-7 win.
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“I think it was our best team effort from the back end out,” said head coach Rob Williams.
Williams gave special mention to Ben McIntosh who scored six goals and had two assists during Sunday night’s game, receiving the first star of the game.
“That was huge, having him back in the lineup,” said Williams of McIntosh, who travels back and forth between a pro-field league in the United States.
He also acknowledged Curtis Dickson who scored two goals during the game, Dane Dobbie, who scored two and had one assist and the defence, whom Williams said, “settled down after the first and locked it down.”
“It was a period and a half they didn’t get a goal. So our defence and our goaltending is on task,” he said.
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Goaltender Frankie Scigliano and defenceman Brett Craig received the other two stars.
Williams says going into game three, the Burrards need to rely on their experience, noting that the Shamrocks are a younger team.
“We had two short-handed goals against. We can improve in that area,” he said.
He also said they need to stay focused and disciplined, especially when there is travel involved going back and forth to Victoria, that can be “taxing mentally” for the team.
Shamrocks coach Bob Heyes said Friday night’s game was exciting for both fans and teams.
He said it took his team a bit of time to find their game on Friday after coming off a layoff after sweeping Nanaimo in the first playoff round. Heyes thinks that Maple Ridge was still in playoff mode after a tough series against New Westminster.
“It took us to sudden death overtime to get the win. But I think we adapted to that style of play,” he said about the game.
As for Sunday night, he said, his team started off well, but that the game got dragged down into penalty troubles.
“Maple Ridge playing their style of game which, at times, kind of drags you in the penalty box and kind of gets underneath your skin a little bit,” he said.
He said his team just needs to be better.
“I don’t think we’ve really played our best lacrosse in these two games. We still have more to show in our game,” he said.
On Tuesday night, he wants to play their style of game, not allowing the Burrards to draw them into penalties.
“We need to do a better job. We can’t let Ben McIntosh score six goals,” said Heyes who expects this series to be hard-fought.
“We need to challenge Maple Ridge’s defence. They play a good defensive system and they’ve got a pretty good goalie in Frankie back there,” he said adding that for his team they need to “just be better and play a better game in our style of game.”
Game three takes place 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 20 at The Q Center in Victoria.
cflanagan@mapleridgenews.com
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