The road to the Western Lacrosse Association came to a 'Rocky end for the Burnaby Lakers.
The third-place-finishing club in the regular season was swept in straight games by the Victoria Shamrocks 10-7 in the bestof-seven semifinal playoff at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre on Sunday.
The senior A Lakers fell behind 8-2 after 40 minutes before rallying with a 5-2 third period in the final game.
Earlier, Burnaby was swarmed 17-3 by the Shamrocks in Game 3 at Bear Mountain Arena last Friday.
The one-sided loss came just days after arguably Burnaby's best showing against the regular season runner-up at home on Aug. 7. In that game, Burnaby jumped out to a three-goal lead at one juncture of the first period and continued to lead 9-7 midway through the final frame before Victoria found its stride with a game-changing five-goal splurge. The following game, Burnaby managed just three goals on 36 shots and had few answers for the Shamrocks snipers up front.
On Sunday, Dane Stevens, the team's regular season scoring leader, got Burnaby's only goal of the first period. Colton Clark got his first of two tallies in the second period.
"I thought we were ready to go, but we were playing from behind all game. It just wasn't to be," said Burnaby coach Rory McDade.
The first-year head coach added that it takes a few years to figure out the senior game.
"That's what I'm hoping," McDade said. "We were beaten at every spot in the game. We're looking for our guys to develop. We're pretty confident in what we got."
Jason Lang, Burnaby Now / In on goal: Burnaby Lakers Scott Jones, in white, goes hard to the net in Game 2 of the Western Lacrosse Association best-of-seven semifinal against the Victoria Shamrocks.;
