The Victoria Shamrocks are in the playoffs, with the first round set to start Wednesday (Aug. 2) as they take on the New Westminster Salmonbellies.
It marks the end of a regular season that saw mixed results for the Western Lacrosse Association team, but one which lined up with head coach Mike Simpson’s expectations and positions the team well for the postseason.
“It’s been a good season. We had a little wobble in the middle where we lost five in a row where they were all close but we just found ways to lose, to be honest, but I think we righted the ship and are in a pretty good spot,” said Simpson.
“We are a really young group of guys, so I expected some bumps along the way and they came, but I really love how the guys handled them and stayed the course.”
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The Shamrocks finished the regular season 10-7-1 and ended on a two-game winning streak compared to New Westminster’s 15-3-0 and four-game winning streak.
Simpson said the fourth-ranked team proved successful in running the ball out of their end throughout the season with a strong transition game, but their special teams will need refinement if they want to be successful in the postseason against the top-ranked Salmonbellies.
He said while the team is good at drawing penalties, they have had difficulty capitalizing on the powerplay with goals.
“We need to be more efficient on the powerplay in the playoffs … we need to be more diligent in shooting in those areas we’ve identified as places to shoot. A bit more attention to detail on the powerplay is what we are thinking.”
Simpson said the team took the final two games of the regular season, and the week-long break between games leading up to them, as an opportunity to rest after a busy stretch of games that saw them play four games in seven nights. Several key players were benched for those final games to ensure they would be ready to go come Wednesday.
Overall, he said the team is in a good place mentally at the moment, and they are especially looking forward to game two of the playoffs on Friday (Aug. 4) which will be the first at home.
“What I love about our team is I know we haven’t played our best game yet, so that’s encouraging for us,” said Simpson. “We are going to run the floor, that’s what we do and we are not going to change who we are for the playoffs, so people can expect some exciting lacrosse … we are very fortunate here, we have the best fans in the league and it’s not very close, and we are going to need them and hope they all come out on Friday.”
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