The Cowichan Rats closed out the regular season with two more wins despite running out a short bench in their last pair of games.
The Rats had just 11 runners against the Westshore Aces last Saturday and only 10 against the Victoria Jokers on Tuesday, but pulled off 15-4 and 17-7 victories to finish the Vancouver Island Lacrosse League regular season with a 13-2 record.
The Diesel was humming on Saturday as Shayne Alexander scored a hat trick, while Brayden Zunti put up eight goals and four assists. Tyson Black added two goals and two assists, Dan Rabey and Dylan Dewarle each had a goal and two assists, and Ryan King chipped in with three helpers. Goalie Ryan Brabander stopped 18 of 22 and got in on the offence with a pair of assists.
On Tuesday, six different players had five or more points as the Rats scored a season-best 17 goals. Zunti led the way with six goals and one assist, Aidan Miller finished with four goals and two helpers, Clayton Vickers had three goals and two assists, Black scored two goals and assisted on four more, and Dewarle had five assists. Brabander earned his 13th win of the season with 24 stops on 31 shots.
In 15 regular-season games, the Rats scored 180 goals and surrendered just 71.
The team is off until July 9, when they will play host to either the Jokers or Victoria Blazers in a playoff semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Cowichan swept their three-game season series again both of those teams, outscoring the Jokers 39-17 and the Blazers 28-10.
If they win that they will open the VILL finals at home on Monday, July 11, also at 7:30 p.m.