Rhys Duch, who stars in the winters with the NLL’s Stealth, helped short-handed Victoria to a 1-0 series lead over Burnaby in the WLA semifinals. (www.stealthlax.com)
The Victoria Shamrocks started off their best-of-seven Western Lacrosse Association semifinal against the Burnaby Lakers Wednesday night missing some key components.
Jeff Shattler, Mitch Jones and Derek Lowe were among the players not dressed. Victoria, the second seeds, still managed a 12-8 win at home over the No. 3 Lakers.
Victoria general manager Chris Welch said before the series he didn’t expect to have any players absent due to prior commitments this series, but he refused to comment on injuries. He reiterated that stance Thursday morning.
They do have some time to rest up, since Game 2 is next Wednesday in Burnaby. The other semi, between the two-time reigning champion and top-seeded Langley Thunder and the No. 4 Coquitlam Adanacs, gets going tonight (Thursday) in Langley.
Shattler, one of the game’s more versatile left-handers and the 2011 National Lacrosse League MVP, was apparently injured in Victoria’s 9-8 loss to the Langley Thunder in their next-to-last regular season game on July 20. He sat out the league play finale, a 14-8 win over the Nanaimo Timbermen on July 26.
He was Victoria’s fourth leading scorer in league play, putting up 24 goals and 49 points in 14 games.
Next on the scoring chart for Victoria was rookie lefty Jones, who had 17 goals and 40 points in 16 games. He, too, played in the Langley loss but skipped the win over Nanaimo. His brother, Jason, is one of the top players on the Lakers.
Lowe, a right-hander, played in that game against Nanaimo, but he only got into nine regular season games in total, and produced 16 points, including eight goals.
On Wednesday, Victoria received three goals and three assists from Rhys Duch and two goals and four assists from Cory Conway.
Duch and goalie Matt Vinc were among the Shamrocks who saw limited action in the regular season due to other duties. Duch played seven league games and Vinc minded the net in eight. Vinc made 26 saves Wednesday.
