The Burnaby Lakers have had enough of Vancouver Island, at least for the moment.
The senior A Lakers lost to an Island team for the second time in as many weeks following a 14-8 loss to the unbeaten first-place Vicoria Shamrocks at Bear Mountain Arena on Friday night. In their home and Western Lacrosse Association opener last week, Burnaby fell to the Nanaimo Timbermen by a single goal.
This time out, the Lakers were facing arguably the toughest team in the seven-team loop.
With five players, including off-season pickup Scott Ranger - who all played together on the National Lacrosse League western semifinalist Calgary Roughnecks this season - Victoria's Jeff Shattler said the Shamrocks have been assembled with a Mann Cup in mind.
"We want to finish first. It's huge in the playoffs and I really think our team is capable of doing it (winning a championship)," he said. "We've got a real shot at it this year."
Burnaby kept it close in the opening 20 minutes on power-play goals by Shaun Dhaliwal, Dane Stevens and Jackson Decker.
But Victoria answered with two late first-period goals to take a two-goal lead and then opened the middle stanza with a four-goal run which led to backup Joe Bell coming in to replace starter Dan Lewis with the deficit at 8-3.
Decker, with his second of the game, and Darren Kinnear scored goals less than two minutes apart to get the visitors to within four before the period ended.
Colton Clark and Dhaliwal, with his pair, led off the final period but that was as close as the Lakers would get.
Victoria responded with five of the next six goals as they outshot Burnaby 17-8 in the final frame.
Newly acquired Blake Mattinson got his first WLA goal midway through the third period.
"(Victoria's) real strong," said Burnaby Lake head coach Rory McDade. "They definitely outplayed us."
Shattler and Ranger both scored hat tricks and added five assists apiece, while Corey Small helped out on the left side with three goals and a single helper.
Stevens was the best on the Burnaby bench with a goal and four helpers. Bell took the loss, allowing six goals on 26 shots.
"It's early in the season, we're definitely not in panic mode. We improved on five-on-five going into the Victoria game," said McDade, who expects to have 6-5 righthander Scott Jones back in the lineup for Friday's home game. "We're going to get better as the guys return."
Burnaby is scheduled to take on Curtis Dickson and the Maple Ridge Burrards at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre on Friday. Game time is 7: 45 p.m.
