It was a playoff preview on St. Patrick’s Day, as the Arena Lacrosse League (ALL) west division regular season came to a close.
Sunday afternoon, the Black Fish used a strong second half to defeat the Sea Spray 17-11 in the first game while the Shooting Eagles were 20-15 winners over the Grizzlies in game two.
Both games were played at Langley Events Centre (LEC).
The teams now get set for the league semifinals tomorrow (Sunday, March 24) with the second-place Sea Spray (8-7) facing the third-place Black Fish (7-8) at 1 p.m., while the first-place Shooting Eagles (10-5) against the fourth-place Grizzlies (5-10) at 4 p.m.
Schedule and ticket details online.
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Black Fish 17 – Sea Spray 11
Brian Gillis is a fan of March 17.
“Must have been a little luck of the Irish today with St. Paddy’s Day; it’s a great day,” Gillis said outside the victorious Black Fish dressing room.
Gillis – who represented Ireland in 2019 at the World Lacrosse Box Championships – was the game’s first star following a seven-goal, 10-point performance in the Black Fish’s 17-11 win over the Sea Spray.
By his recollection, the seven goals marked a career high, although he did post a sock-trick (six goals) in an ALL game back in 2022.
“We were moving the ball well on ‘O’. We were swinging the ball lots; guys had lots of energy, flying around, getting into the middle and shooting the ball well,” Gillis said.
“We played a pretty good team game today, all the way from the back with Humps (goaltender Brandon Humphrey) in net and up to the offensive end.”
It was the final regular season game with the Sea Spray, finishing in second spot at 8-7 while the Black Fish are third at 7-8.
Both teams already knew they would be facing one another in the ALL west semifinals.
“All year, we have struggled with our confidence with our offence being consistent, but I think they are starting to get the swagger and today was the perfect day for us,” said Black Fish coach Rod Jensen.
The Black Fish scored the first four goals of the game and trailed just once, 6-5, late in the second quarter. The teams went to the locker room tied at 6 before a 4-1 third quarter put the Black Fish ahead for good.
While Gillis led the offence with his seven goals and 10 points, Laszlo Henning finished with four goals and seven points and Connor Watson had eight assists. Ethan M’Lot (2-4) and Chase McIntyre (2-0) both had two-goals games with Josh Mills (1-1) and Temeke7 Gottfriedsen (1-0) completing the team’s scoring.
Brandon Humphrey made 33 saves on 44 shots for the Black Fish.
Both Sea Spray goalies saw action as they were outshot 60-44 with Lee Jackman stopping 36 of 49 shots and Nate Faccin making seven saves on 11 shots.
James Rahe (3-2) and Tyler Ewen (3-0) both scored hat tricks in the loss while Tyler Kirkby scored twice and set up five goals. Adam Dickson (1-1), Lukas Nielsen (1-0), and Kordell Primus (1-0) had the other Sea Spray goals.
RELATED: After a slow start, Eagles come back to beat Spray
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Shooting Eagles 20 – Grizzlies 15
The Shooting Eagles are heading into the post-season flying high.
The team wrapped up its ALL west division regular season with a third-straight victory thanks to a 20-15 win over the Grizzlies Sunday afternoon at LEC.
The team – which had already clinched top spot – finished with a 10-5 record while the Grizzlies finish in fourth place at 5-10.
Again, the two teams will meet this Sunday in a one-game semifinal.
“I think the most important thing to come out of this game was to go in (to the playoffs) on a positive note,” said Shooting Eagles coach Adam Smith, whose team had lost three straight prior to this late-season winning streak.
This marks the second straight season the team has finished in top spot during the regular season, and now they will try and claim another championship to go along with that.
“It’s a tough league and everyone is competitive and working their butts off. I am a believer when we run our systems, we are one of the better teams in the league and it is nice when the stats represent that,” he said.
In last Sunday’s game, the Grizzlies entered on a three-game winning streak and the teams has split their four previous head-to-head matchups.
The Eagles had the only four goals of the first quarter before surrendering seven straight to fall behind. They would recover to knot the score at 10 heading into the second half and then locked things down, allowing just five goals over the final 30 minutes.
“We just couldn’t stop the bleeding,” Smith explained of that 15-minute stretch where they allowed 10 goals.
“We have to be able to respond when good teams start doing different things and we just weren’t able to in the second. But we did in the third and fourth, and that’s the positive result we wanted to finish on.”
Six Eagles players had multi-goal games with Dylan McIntosh (4-3) and Spencer Bromley (4-1) leading the way with four apiece. Patrick Corbett (2-3), Doug Porter (2-2), Declan Fitzpatrick (3-1), and Mark Yingling (2-1) also scored 2+ goals with Dylan Lacroix (1-3), Govind Saggu (1-0), and Rhys Blake (1-0) also finding the back of the net.
Alex Buque made 38 saves on 50 shots while Colin Jeffrey stopped four of the seven he faced.
The Grizzlies’ Pearson Willis led all scorers with five goals and 10 points with Drew Kask (5-1) also potting a five-goal game. Kyle Brunsch (2-4), Sekawnee Baker (1-3), Connor Whyte (1-1) and Dylan McCormick (1-0) had the other goals. Ryder Bremner made 23 saves on 38 shots while Brayden Wandler allowed five goals on seven shots.