The Victoria Shamrocks and Nanaimo Timbermen opened their best-of-five first round playoff series at The Q Centre Tuesday night. The top-seeded Shamrocks posted a 16-2 record in the regular season, including sweeping all three regular season games against the Timbermen. Nanaimo finished the regular season under .500 with an 8-10 record, but it was enough to earn the fourth and final playoff spot. Unfortunately for the Timbermen, their woes against Victoria this year continued, as the Shamrocks got out to a big lead early and never looked back in a 15-6 victory. Game 2 takes place at Frank Crane Arena on Thursday night.
The Shamrocks wasted no time in their quest to get back to the Mann Cup, starting the game on a six-goal run. Patrick Dodds (0:26; 4:29) and Eli McLaughlin (3:22; 4:45) each scored twice, then Marshal King (5:25) and WLA scoring leader Zach Manns (11:26 power play) followed for a 6-0 lead. A power play goal from Andrew Bowman (13:33) finally got Nanaimo on the board, but Manns struck again late in the period (18:31 extra attacker) to give the Shamrocks a 7-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Shamrocks keep foot on the gas en route to 1-0 series lead
Victoria stayed hot in the second period, starting with Denton MacDonald (0:55 power play) making it 8-1. McLaughlin (2:55) and Dodds (4:01) each scored their hat trick goal, then Ari Stevens (5:18) found the net for and 11-1 Shamrocks lead. Bowman again broke the run for Nanaimo (7:58 power play), but McLaughlin’s fourth goal of the game (8:41 shorthanded) pushed the lead back to ten. The Timbermen got another power play goal from Noah Manning (9:07), but Brodie Wade scored late (18:28) as Victoria took a 13-3 lead into the third period.
McLaughlin opened the third with back-to-back goals (4:09; 7:46 power play) to give him a sock trick on the evening. The Timbermen put a mini-run together, but far too late to make a difference. A marker from Ryan Sheridan (8:38) and two more from Manning (11:55 power play; 14:25) closed the book on a game Nanaimo will look to forget. The Shamrocks outshot the Timbermen 64-37, and Tyrell Hamer-Jackson went 18 of 24 on faceoffs for Victoria. McLaughlin (6g, 1a) was named 1st Star of the Game, Dodds (3g, 4a) took home 2nd Star, and Stevens (1g) earned 3rd Star honors. Chris Origlieri stopped 31 shots in the Shamrocks net, while Colby Bowman and Devlin Shanahan split time in net for Nanaimo, combining to make 39 saves.
