The Kelowna Senior Raiders and Kamloops Rattlers went toe-to-toe all night in a hot Memorial Arena in Kamloops on Saturday night as the two teams closed out the regular season in the Thompson Okanagan Senior Lacrosse League with a close battle for playoff position.
When the dust had settled a Kelowna comeback fell just short and Kamloops earned an 11-9 victory over Kelowna heading into the first round of the playoffs this week,
Kamloops earned a bye in the playoffs while Kelowna will host Armstrong in a best-of-three first round playoff series this week.
On Saturday night in Kamloops, the Rattlers jumped out to a big lead thanks to the ongoing skilled shooting of Riley Donahue and AJ Lockwood, each with three goals and three assists.
The Kelowna side stormed back with a flurry of six goals in the third led by Ryan Sage with three but it was too late to overcome the first place Rattlers.
Also scoring for the Rattlers was Russ McIntosh with a pair, Josh Sveinson, Derek Swan and Liam Hagerty. For Kelowna it was Taylor Trotter, Pho Heng, Cody Evans, Jordan Innes, Vic Wiens and Ryan Phillips all with a goal apiece.
This was the last regular season meeting for the two teams. First place Kamloops gets a bye in the first round of the playoffs as the Kelowna Raiders and Armstrong Shamrocks begin their best of three series in Kelowna on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
