The loss for the Shamrocks could have come from the 1969 R&B song by BB King titled “The Thrill is Gone” at the conclusion of game six or quite possibly while taking the ferry back to the Island they could have been listening to the 1979 Supertramp Album “Breakfast in America” with the sixth track of “Take The Long Way Home”, but either way, defeat is tough to swallow.
The run is over and the title is claimed for the 2016 WLA Champion Maple Ridge Burrards who pulled out a convincing win in game 6 by a narrow score of 10-9 capturing the WLA Championship trophy.
The series has been anything but a home and home series as the visiting team has won in each other’s arena, with the exception of game six in Maple Ridge.
The win is extra special for the team, but mostly Darrin, whose Father Ted brought the team from Surrey to Maple Ridge in 1996 and prior to that they played out of the Kerrisdale Arena on 41st and the Boulevard.
Ted sadly passed away in 2005 and it was after this that the Western Lacrosse Association renamed Championship Trophy to the Ted Fridge Memorial Trophy.
Ted’s legacy lives on and reflecting back to the 70ties, Port Coquitlam Minor Lacrosse officials asked him (Ted) if he could contribute a “little extra time” as a member of the association’s executive.
Upon saying he would help he immediately was named Vice President, but a short three months later the President resigned and he immediately became in-charge of the Association in that area for lacrosse.
Fridge remained President for seven years and added “Coach” to his resume, leading Tom (his son’s teams) to two (2)
provincial Tier 2 titles and second son Daren’s club to the 1981 Peewee Nationals in Longueil.
The Senior A’s were deeply in debt in 1990 and on the verge of quite possibly folding the franchise.
As President of the Junior A’s Ted offered to head up the senior team and as he obtained a new executive, the senior team went into the “Black” and challenged; albeit unsuccessfully for the Mann Cup in 1993.
The following season (1994) Ted served as the GM of the Burrards senior team that had previously moved from Vancouver (Kerrisdale Arena) to play out of the Surrey Recreation Centre.
A short year later he was also named president, but in 1996 he felt it was in the best interest of the club to relocate the franchise.
This move saw them move east of the Port Mann to the town of Maple Ridge and even now notwithstanding the heavy work-load; he managed to spent time as commissioner of Senior Men’s Field Lacrosse League.
Many might say “enough is enough”, but not Ted as in spite of this work-load he still found time to sit on the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame Board of Governors.
With the win, it will be the first time since 2012 that the Shamrocks won’t compete for the Mann Cup.
With the Burrards holding a series lead of 3 games to 2 and playing on home floor in front of a capacity crowd, they could “taste” victory.
The building was packed with close to 2,000 on hand to take in the game several of whom were hoping and cheering on the Burrards and were not disappointed with the outcome.
It wouldn’t be easy as the Shamrocks fought hard in all areas of the floor, but the Burrards held two and three goal leads numerous times throughout the first two periods of the game.
The Burrards were lead by Mike Mallory and company while the Shamrocks were lead by Corey Small who had two goals and two assists, while Rhys Duch (who is always double-teamed) managed one goal and four assists.
Burrards net-minder and game MVP Frankie Scigliano plays for the Calgary Roughnecks during the winter months, now will be joined by Christian Del Bianco of the Junior Adanac’s who was named MVP of this years Minto Cup.
Ben McIntosh (20 goals, 23 assists) and Dan Taylor (16 goals, 27 assists) each had 43 points in the playoffs.
The Burrards will face Six Nations who were actually down 3-0 to the Peterborough Lakers early in the series, but came back to win four consecutive games taking the title in the east.
Knowing the talent the west brings the Offensive Coordinator for the Six Nations John Tavares understands that he has to have his squad focused to meet the Burrards.
Let’s not forget that John Tavares also but played Senior A in Vancouver in 1990 and has since moved on, but his skills are still sharp.
On another note with Six Nations being able to erase the 0-3 deficit and force a game seven, this is the third consecutive year they managed this feat.
Chiefs coach Rich Kilgour told the media “Down 0-3 we knew we weren’t out of it by a long shot and we knew they had to win that fourth game. That’s the hardest one to win. We just kept working and kept believing and this is a veteran locker room and there’s no quit in them.”
To the surprise of no one, unless you’re a Shamrocks supporter it was Maple Ridge net-minder Frankie Scigliano won the Bill Ellison Trophy as the WLA playoffs 2016 MVP.
He was voted first star in two of the six games in the final series, and led the Burrards to four one-goal wins plus a three-goal overtime victory in six-games against Victoria.
In addition to the five-game semi-final win over the Salmonbellies.
Interesting to note that a BC team has not won a Mann Cup title (on the road) since the 1986 bellies won in six games and was led by Geordie Dean and Ben Hieltjes.
We wish them all the best moving forward to the Mann Cup Championship.
Game one of the Mann Cup begins Friday, September 9th at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena in Ohsweken.
Special “thanks” to @Paulie007 for the photo’s.
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