It will be an all-North Okanagan affair when the Thompson Okanagan Junior Lacrosse League playoffs get underway next Wednesday at Wesbild Centre.
The second-place Vernon Re/Max Tigers (8-6-2) will host the third-place Armstrong Shamrocks (6-8-2) in Game 1 of a best-of-five semifinal series. The remaining games alternate between Nor-Val Sports Centre and Wesbild (see attached schedule), all with 7:30 p.m. start times.
The Tigers dropped their first two games of their regular-season series with Armstrong, but won the last two.
“There’s always that rivalry with Armstrong and Vernon with the guys playing together growing up,” said Tigers’ assistant coach Dave McWhirter. “There’s some pride to be swallowed by the loser when you have a rivalry like that.
“We didn’t play very well against them the first two games, but played better lacrosse the last two games and we’re looking forward to carrying that over.”
The first-place Kamloops Venom (13-1-1) will battle either the fourth-seeded South Okanagan Flames (4-10-2) or fifth-place Kelowna Raiders (4-10-1), pending the outcome of Thursday’s tilt between Kamloops and Kelowna. If Kelowna wins, they are in; a loss would eliminate them, and a tie would go to a head-to-head tiebreaker.
The Cats ended their regular season last weekend, handing the Venom their first loss of the season with a 12-9 decision Saturday at Wesbild. They drew the Flames 13-13 Sunday in Penticton.
“It was definitely our best game of the year,” said McWhirter, who praised defenders Matt Kolb, Theo Wagner and Austin Lewarne for their physical play.
“We really punished Kamloops. Jake Soleway must have laid three or four guys out. We’re big, strong guys on the back end and they came ready to play. They (Venom) didn’t want to cut through the middle at the end of the game.”
Vernon continued its trend of building solid starts, rushing out to a 5-0 lead on the strength of three shorthanded goals against Kamloops. Nolan Frame and Prince George import Mike Quarin, each with a deuce, and singles by Ryan Landels and Bayne Bosquet accounted for the Cats’ first-period barrage. Jordan Ellis and Braidy Jorgenson handled Kamloops’ offence.
The margin remained the same in the second frame as Landels, who added five assists, Ryan Sarazin, Frame and Darryl Landels recorded singles for Vernon, and Brett Defrias (2), Jimmy Latin and Gage Deacon scored for the visitors.
Jordan Orr, who supplied three assists, and Sarazin completed Vernon’s scoring in the final frame. Jamie Forster, Quinn Smith and Blaine Boomer tallied for the Venom. Vernon captain Brett Hanna chipped in two helpers.
Kamloops outshot Vernon 57-42, but Tigers’ netminder Joel Fruncillo backstopped his team with a 48-save effort. Unfortunately, Fruncillo will miss the playoffs as he broke his thumb making a save Saturday. It required pins.
“That’s gonna hurt,” said McWhirter, of losing their starter.
The Tigers are expected to go with a tandem of Midget call-up Tyler Landry and Trail’s Thomas Bella, who started Sunday’s game against South Okanagan.
Bella, having never practised with the team, nor having played with the larger nets, was pulled in favour of Landry in the third period.
“Thomas played well, we just didn’t give him the support he needed,” said McWhirter. “We didn’t come to play. We were behind the whole game.”
With Vernon trailing 11-8 heading into the third period, Frame scored twice with the goalie pulled for the extra attacker to salvage the tie.
“It just shows our guys are able to deal with adversity,” added McWhirter. “You never want to go into the playoffs on a weak game.”
Ryan Landels put on a clinic against South Okanagan, registering five goals and eight assists. Frame supplied 6+1, Sarazin had 1+4 and was great on faceoffs and Darryl Landels fired a single.
Meanwhile, the Baby Rocks fell 16-6 to the host Venom in their final regular-season fixture Sunday at Memorial Arena.
In Senior C lacrosse action, due to a booking error, Thursday’s game between the Shamrocks and Kamloops Rattlers has been moved from Enderby Arena to Nov-Val, with an 8 p.m. start.
“It very disappointing to the players as they were all looking forward to playing in Enderby,” said Rocks’ president Jeff Hanley.
An Armstrong win would give the Rocks second place overall and home-floor advantage in round one of the Shaw Cup playoffs.
