Shamrocks even lacrosse series with win in OT

It’s a best-of-three series now.The Victoria Shamrocks evened their Western Lacrosse Association best-of-seven semifinal at 2-2 via a thrilling 11-8 overtime victory over the Coquitlam Adanacs  Sunday night on the mainland.Clawing their way back from an 0-2 series deficit, the Shamrocks have regained home-court advantage and play host to the Adanacs at Bear Mountain Arena in Game 5 Tuesday at 7:45 p.m. Game 6 heads back to Coquitlam on Wednesday.Derek Lowe tied the game for the Shamrocks with 1.9 seconds remaining in the third period and Corey Small, with his fourth and fifth goals of the evening, provided the OT heroics.Victoria played Sunday’s game without starting netminder Matt Flindell, who was injured late in Friday’s 9-6 Shamrocks win when Jason Jones purposely ran him. A melee ensued but Flindell left the game due to injury.Chris Levis made Sunday’s start in goal and made 45 saves, including all seven in overtime.Jones, who escaped further discipline despite the hit on Flindell in Game 3, scored two for the Adanacs, almost adding insult to injury. Dane Dobbie, with a pair, Daryl Veltman, Kevin Olson, Damon Edwards and Ryan Johnson also scored for Coquitlam.Karsen Leung with a pair, Matt Lyons, Ryan Benesch and Mitch McLaren, with an empty-netter in OT, replied for the Shamrocks.Nick Rose made 46 saves in goal for Coquitlam.Victoria’s Chet Koneczny and Coquitlam’s Andrew McBride were both suspended for Game 4 due to an altercation following Friday’s game, but Jones went unscathed.“It was a bizarre call when our goalie gets run, they get the ball and we, somehow, get the short end of the stick on it. It’s disappointing,” Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes said of the infraction, which led to three misconducts on both teams.Levis came into Friday’s game following Flindell’s injury and gave up two quick goals.“Levy is a veteran, that’s why we traded for him last year,” Heyes said before Sunday’s outing. “He’s a professional, in fact he wanted to start the [Friday] game, but I went with Flinner. He came in in a tough position and he still made some saves in that win.”[email protected]@ tc_vicsports