Two goals in the final two minutes propelled the Armstrong Shamrocks to a 7-6 win over the Aidrie Mohawks in Friday’s opening match of the four-game, Owen Siddall Memorial Senior Lacrosse Icebreaker tournament at the Hassen Arena.
Brett Hawrys scored his third of the night on a two-on-one, taking a pass from Cam Nelson and wiring a shot past Mohawks goalie Angus Jenkins for the game-winner with 45 seconds left in the contest.
The goal came 41 seconds after Steve Clark tied the contest with a laser from the outside.
Airdrie, the reigning Alberta Senior C lacrosse champions, who play in the eight-team Rocky Mountain Senior Lacrosse League, had the ball in the final 20 seconds but could not get a decent shot on Armstrong goalie Josh Point.
The Irish led 3-2 after the first period and the game was tied 4-4 heading into the final 20 minutes.
Both Jenkins and Point had strong games between the pipes.
Brennan Plante, Milan Marcetta and Kyle Versteeg had the other goals for Armstrong in its only full-team game of the tournament.
Josh Santorelli had 1+2 to pace the Mohawks while Tyler Weber, Steve Morris, Paul Read, Josh Taylor and Greg Bradley had the other markers.
The Mohawks took on the Kelowna Raiders of the Thompson Okanagan Senior Lacrosse League Saturday afternoon, then faced a TOSLL all-star team Saturday night, a squad made up of players from the Shamrocks and Raiders.
The all-stars and Mohawks meet in the event’s final game today at 11 at the Hassen Arena.
The Shamrocks begin defence of their Rowcliffe Cup championship in the three-team TOSLL with a home date against the Kamloops Rattlers Saturday, April 29, at 7:30 p.m. at the N0r-Val Sports Centre.
The Rattlers and Raiders kick off the regular season April 21 in Kamloops.
Each team will play an eight-game regular season with the top-two teams advancing to the Rowcliffe Cup best-of-five league championship.