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Last night: Shamrocks and Timbermen win Western Lacrosse Association openers

Defender Ben McCullough was named third star of Victoria's season-opening WLA win.

The Victoria Shamrocks have been loading up for a run at the Mann Cup this year. The early returns are positive—in the form of a 10-6 season-opening win over Coquitlam in which they outshot the Adanacs 63-39. The Shamrocks ran out to a 4-0 lead after the first period and only high save percentages by Nick Rose (.833 in the first period) and Adam Shute (.846 the rest of the way) kept the margin of victory from being bigger.

Scott Ranger scored a hat trick and Cory Conway assisted on 7 of the Shamrocks’ 10 goals. Corey Small scored once and added 4 assists to help Victoria’s cause. Shamrocks’ goalie Matt Flindell posted the exact same numbers as Shute did—33 saves on 39 shots—to earn the win.

Coquitlam’s scoring was spread around with six different players scoring goals. Eastern import Jesse Guerin was their points leader with a goal and 2 assists in his WLA debut. Guerin finished second in Major Series Lacrosse last year with 22 goals and 37 assists for 59 points in 14 games. READ MORE »

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Shamrocks players Conway, Flindell shift NHL allegiance, but can you blame them?

Shamrocks goalie Matt Flindell is rooting for the NHL team that eliminated his Canucks -- for good reason. (Photo: Dan Brodie)

As fans of the Vancouver Canucks, the NHL postseason party ended early for Cory Conway and Matt Flindell. But the Victoria Shamrocks aren’t done cheering. Not when former schoolmate Matt Irwin is helping man the defense for the San Jose Sharks. Sure, it was the Sharks who eliminated the Canucks, but rooting for a buddy is easy, no matter who he plays for. “My family is made up of Canucks fans. I don’t like to see them lose, but it’s nice to have friends like that playing on the biggest stage so it doesn’t make it that tough to pick who I will support from this point on,” Conway told the Times-Colonist. They’ve known each other since Grade 1, and Flindell made the trip to San Jose in April to see Irwin and the Sharks play. “It was conflicting to start, but you quickly realize it would mean more to you to see him win instead of the Canucks,” Flindell said. “To see the Cup back in Victoria would be amazing.”

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Shamrocks add more local fire power with addition of Rhys Duch

The Victoria Shamrocks are very pleased to announce the return of Rhys Duch for the 2013 Western Lacrosse Association season. The 26 year-old Victoria native is coming off a career year in the National Lacrosse League in which he earned All-Pro First Team honours after scoring in every game to lead the NLL with 45 goals, finishing third in leagues scoring with 96 points and leading his Washington Stealth team to the championship final. In his previous four seasons with the Shamrocks between 2008 and 2011, Duch appeared in 76 regular season and playoff games in which he scored 152 goals and added 171 assists for 323 points. He is a three-time WLA all-star including two First Team honours in 2010 and 2011. Last summer he played for the Six Nations Chiefs in Ontario. READ MORE »

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Shamrocks acquire western rights to Rory Smith but he won’t report in 2013

The Victoria Shamrocks have acquired Rory Smith's WLA rights from New Westminster. (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

The Victoria Shamrocks are pleased to announce they have acquired the WLA playing rights to Rory Smith and a 2nd round pick in the 2014 WLA Draft from the New Westminster Salmonbellies in exchange for the WLA playing rights to Chet Koneczny and a conditional 1st round pick in the 2016 WLA Draft. If Smith, who is committed to the Six Nations Chiefs in Ontario for the 2013 season, plays in the WLA in 2014 or 2015, New Westminster will receive the 1^st round draft pick. If he does not, then the Shamrocks retain the pick and Smith’s rights revert back to the Salmonbellies in 2016.

“This deal is made with the future I mind,” said Shamrocks general manager Chris Welch. “We believe Rory is interested in returning to the WLA next year so we made sure that if he does, he’ll be in green and white.  We’re very familiar with how difficult is to play against him so we’re hoping we can get him on our side.” READ MORE »

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The Victoria Shamrocks continue to beef up roster heading into the 2013 WLA season

Cory Conway returns to the Shamrocks. (Photo: Dan Brodie)

A few weeks ago, the Victoria Shamrocks added one of the game’s best goalies. A couple months ago, they added one of the game’s most underrated scorers. Well today, the Rocks have added some more scoring depth with the acquisition of local Victoria product Cory Conway in a trade with the Nanaimo Timbermen for future draft picks. This is just another move by GM Chris Welch in hopes of returning the Shamrocks to the Mann Cup for the first time since 2006. Conway last wore the clover back in junior lacrosse where he racked up 163 pts in 43 games and was highly coveted by many senior teams for his size, speed and creativity. His first three seasons were spent with the Coquitlam Adanacs and the 6′2 right-hander put up 220 points, including a 92-point season in 2010. READ MORE »

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Victoria Shamrocks continue to bolster their 2013 roster by adding goaltender Matt Vinc

Matt Vinc

It’s safe to say that the Western Lacrosse Association’s Victoria Shamrocks have been the busiest Sr. A team this offseason and today they continue that trend by adding one of the game’s best goalies to their 2013 roster. Coming off a National Lacrosse League Champion’s Cup run with the Rochester Knighthawks, Matt Vinc has been at the top of the lacrosse world for the past few years and at just 30 years old, he has plenty of great years ahead of him.

For Victoria, the addition of Vinc gives it some stability in between the pipes they haven’t had since Anthony Cosmo left after the 2006 season, the last year the Shammies were in the Mann Cup finals. Since then, they have run through Nick Patterson, Aaron Bold, Chris Levis and Matt Flindell, who are all very talented goalies in their own right but were just unable to get the job done. READ MORE »

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Did the Jr. Shamrocks just open European pipeline in signing Czech young gun Pesek?

Dominik Pesek about to, as Patrick Merrill puts it, 'Run right by me' during a friendly before the 2011 World Championships.

Quick: when I say “Czech Republic” what sport do you think of? OK, step out the lacrosse box for a minute and take an unbiased stance. Most people will automatically think hockey, soccer or even tennis as the dominant sports, producing names such as Dominik Hasek, Jaromir Jagr, Peter Nedved, Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl. Well, while he may not be in the upper echelon of Czech athletes, one name lacrosse fans can start to get used to is the newest member of the Victoria Jr Shamrocks: Dominik Pesek. READ MORE »

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Scott Ranger traded to the Victoria Shamrocks for Emms, Dexter and picks

Scott Ranger has led the WLA in goals and points each of the last two summers. (Photo: Dan Brodie)

While the National Lacrosse League season heats up, teams in Canada are preparing for the summer loop and the Victoria Shamrocks are looking to make some noise as they hope to host the 2013 Mann Cup. WLA Commissioner Casey Cook has confirmed that the Shamrocks have completed a trade with the Nanaimo Timbermen for two time WLA Scoring champ Scott Ranger. In exchange for the high scoring right-hander, the Shamrocks will send the Timbermen the playing rights to Kyle Dexter and Jake Emms as well as two second round conditional draft picks (one of those picks will become a first round pick, if the Rocks are able to get to the Mann Cup). READ MORE »

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Ben McIntosh the first among many Junior Adanacs headlining last night’s WLA draft

Ben McIntosh was the first pick in the 2013 WLA draft held last night. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

When half of the players on a team that has represented the BC Junior A Lacrosse League at the last four Minto Cups graduates in one year, it creates a rich draft for the Western Lacrosse Association. That scenario played itself out last night in one of the strongest WLA drafts in years, if not ever. Four graduates of the Coquitlam Junior Adanacs were taken in the first round and 10 in the first six rounds, headed by the Big Four of Ben McIntosh, Jeff Cornwall, Robert Church and Matthew Dinsdale being snapped up among the first five picks.

The Maple Ridge Burrards opened proceedings at the Langley Events Centre last night by taking righty forward McIntosh, who scored 3 goals per game (27g, 15a, 42pts in 9 games) after returning to the Adanacs from school partway through last summer and finished second in scoring at the 2012 Minto Cup. READ MORE »

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Off the Crossebar Podcast with Kevin Alexander, aka ‘Alexander the Great’

Kevin Alexander knows lacrosse as a player and as a coach. (Photo: Matt J. Wiater)

When you ask people for the names of their top five athletes of all time, many will give you a laundry list of the who’s who in sports, the creme-de-la-creme and for the most part, while it’s fairly predictable, it’s still pretty subjective to their own personal memories and ideals. Well when NBA All-Star and 2-time MVP Steve Nash was asked during half time of an NBA game who his top five  faves were, he threw almost everyone for a loop.

This week on the Off the Crossebar Podcast, we go one-on-one with one of the greatest players you may never have heard of and that’s not a slap in the face to Kevin Alexander, it’s just that in the two years he played in Buffalo during the old MILL days, he was on a team full of Eastern all-stars, hall of famers in their own right and one guy who’s actually still playing, if you can believe it. But for Alexander, who’s already in the Canadian Lacrosse and Victoria Sports Hall of Fames, his most recent induction could be one of the most memorable. READ MORE »