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By Ian McNaughton

Shamrocks- 24 Pts (1st in WLA) 

Regular Season

Top Scorer: Connor Robinson (24-40-64)

Top Goalie: Cody Hagedorn (6-3, 7.02 GAA, .841 SV%) 

Home Record: 6-3-0

Road Record: 6-3-0

Goals For: 173 (2nd)

Goals Against: 141 (2nd) 

Powerplay: 37.2% (6th) 

Penalty Kill: 56.0% (4th) 

Postseason

Top Scorer: Jesse King (19-19-38)

Top Goalie: Pete Dubenski (7-1, 7.21 GAA, .852 SV%)

Home Record: 5-0-0

Goals For: 93

Goals Against: 72 

Powerplay: 40.6%

Penalty Kill: 57.1%

2018 Playoffs: Lost 1-4 to Maple Ridge in WLA Finals 

 

Lakers- 28 Pts (1st in MSL)

Regular Season: 

Top Scorer: Kyle Buchanan (17-52-69)

Top Goalie: Mike Poulin (8-1, 8.45 GAA, .741 SV%) 

Home Record: 8-1-0

Road Record: 5-3-0

Goals For: 196  

Goals Against: 161 

Powerplay: 38% 

Penalty Kill: 59% 

Postseason

Top Scorer: Shawn Evans (11-29-40)

Top Goalie: Matt Vinc (4-0, 8.36 GAA, .803 SV%)

Road Record: 4-1

Goals For: 113

Goals Against: 86

Powerplay: 47% 

Penalty Kill: 74%

2018 Playoffs: Won Mann Cup 4-0 over Maple Ridge Burrards

Canada’s national indoor lacrosse championship is here. The 2019 Mann Cup starts this Friday night as the WLA champion Victoria Shamrocks host the MSL champion Peterborough Lakers at The Q Centre. It’s the first Mann Cup played between these teams since 2015 when the Rocks beat the Lakers in 6 games on home soil. This time around, Peterborough comes in as back to back Mann Cup winners and look to beat Victoria in the championship for the first time since 2006. 

Shamrocks Szn? 

Victoria is coming off an 11-day rest between Game 5 of the WLA Finals and Game 1 of the Mann Cup. So far this postseason Victoria defeated their island rivals, the Nanaimo Timbermen, in four games before shutting down the Maple Ridge Burrards in five games to take home the WLA Championship. It was a highly competitive series between the Rocks and Burrards with three of the five matches ending in one-goal games, including two overtime games. 

The Shamrocks are undefeated at home this postseason and have not lost at The Q Centre since May 31. Coach Bob Heyes has his team playing its best lacrosse of the season and couldn’t come at a better time. Four different Shamrocks have double-digit goals and eight players with ten points or more in the postseason. Leading the Shamrocks offensively has been Victoria’s own Jesse King. Kinger has an equal goal to assist total with 19 goals and 19 assists for the Rocks. 

It’s been tough to ignore GM Chris Welch’s big moves at the trade deadline as he acquired Connor Robinson and Tyler Pace from the Langley Thunder for this Mann Cup run. While they’ll both be heading back to Langley as part of the “boomerang” trades, their impact hasn’t gone without notice. Robinson got the game-winner in double overtime of Game 1 of the WLA Finals while Pace hit the game-winner at the buzzer in overtime of Game 4. We’ll see if Victoria can push the “Pace” offensively with Tyler and Connor Robinson in the Mann Cup. 

However, if Victoria is going to win their 10th Mann Cup in franchise history, it’s the defense that will step up and come through for them. Two Ontario natives lead the Rocks d-core in Steve Priolo and Mack Mitchell. Priolo has been the perfect transition player for Victoria as he’s got at least one point in his last four games. For Mitchell, he’s the ideal stay at home defender that plays his position effectively. But if the ball gets past him, he’s got one of the hottest goalies in the league to back him up. 

Shamrocks netminder Pete Dubenski was named WLA Playoff MVP for his incredible effort. Earlier in the season, Dubenski was traded from Nanaimo to Victoria in exchange for a 3rd round pick and has done nothing but shut the door in BC’s capital. In 19 combined regular season and postseason games, Dubes has averaged a 7.61 GAA with a 0.819 SV%. With just one loss to his name since July, Dubenski is ready to bring a championship home for Shamrocks Nation. 

3Pete for the Lakers? 

On the other site, the Peterborough Lakers come in having been the best team in the MSL all season. They’ve also been Canada’s best team for the last two seasons and look to become the first team to three-peat at the Mann Cup since the Six Nations Chiefs did it between 1994 through 1996. They get to do it against their historical rivals in the Shamrocks, a team they’ve met at least twice in every decade going back to 1950 (excluding the 1960’s and 1990’s). 

Their top scorer this postseason has been Shawn Evans, notching 40 points through the Lakers 10 games in the playoffs. Evans has scored seven points in the last three games as the Peterborough product looks to capture his 7th career Mann Cup. Last year, Evans won the Mike Kelley Award for Mann Cup MVP with three goals and twenty-one assists in the series and currently sits 4th on the all-time Mann Cup points list with 158. If Evans scores 15 points or more, he will pass John Grant Jr (174) for 2nd all-time on the list. 

Outside of Evans, the Lakers have six different players with 20+ points in the postseason. Mark Matthews put up 39 points, including five goals on the powerplay. Wearing Wayne Gretzky’s number 99 is Holden Cattoni, who’s scoring points like he’s Gretzky. Cattoni has 33 points in the playoffs, after getting 47 in the regular season with the Lakers. Another name to watch for in this series will be Joe Resetaritis as he’s had three points in seven of the last eight games. 

Lakers forward Corey Small will be making his first appearance in Victoria since 2017. As a member of the Shamrocks between 2011-2017, Small was a four-time first-team WLA All-Star and scored an incredible 830 points in 190 career games for Victoria. While Small has just 15 points in these playoffs, his presence won’t go unnoticed as he tries to win his second straight Mann Cup this year. 

Peterborough also possesses a top tandem of goalies. Matt Vinc and Mike Poulin have split time nearly equally with Vinc playing 308:39 in the playoffs while Poulin is just under 300 total minutes with 299:24. They each have four wins this postseason and an average GAA of 8.19 (Poulin: 8.02, Vinc: 8,36). Like Victoria, strong goaltending has got them this far and will carry them to another Mann Cup should they win. 

The 2019 Mann Cup gets underway this Friday. All games will be held at The Q Centre start at 7:00 PM. Tickets are limited, so get yours while they’re still available. Don’t miss a second of the action as you can see every game live on WLA TV! Check us out on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, for behind the scenes action from the biggest series of the year! 

 

Playoff Schedule: 

Game #1, Fri Sept 6 at Victoria, 7:00 PM 

Game #2, Sat Sept 7 at Victoria, 7:00 PM

Game #3, Mon Sept 9 at Victoria, 7:00 PM

Game #4, Tues Sept 10 at Victoria, 7:00 PM

*Game #5, Wed Sept 11 at Victoria, 7:00 PM

*Game #6, Fri Sept 13 at Victoria, 7:00 PM

*Game #7, Sat Sept 14 at Victoria, 7:00 PM

*If necessary

Be sure to watch every WLA playoff game live with WLA TV. You can also follow the WLA on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook for behind the scenes action and up to the minute news regarding the WLA!