Lakers double up on Redmen
Josh Currier makes season debut after recovering from injury; Steenhuis scores early as he progresses after return from ankle injury
It didn’t take fan favourite Mark Steenhuis long to get on the scoreboard in his first home game of the Peterborough Century 21 Lakers season.
He scored at 4:53 of the first period to put the Lakers (12-1) up 2-0 in what went on to be a lopsided 12-6 victory over the visiting Brooklin Redmen (6-6-2) on Thursday night before 2,970 fans at the Peterborough Memorial Centre.
The win moved the Lakers one point ahead of Six Nations for first place in the MSL.
Holden Cattoni scored the first goal of the game, putting home a rebound just 13 seconds in. The Lakers led 4-1 after one period and 9-3 after two.
The team drew applause for killing off a Bryce Sweeting roughing penalty at the start of the third period that resulted from an altercation that broke out at the end of the second.
The Redmen then responded with a shorthanded goal to make it 9-4 some 54 seconds later. But that is as close as they would get as the Lakers then added three consecutive goals.
Josh Currier led the way with three goals and two assists, while Cattoni contributed two goal and two assists and Steenhuis added two goals. Austin Shanks led scoring for Brooklin with two goals and three assists.
Matt Vinc made 39 saves in the win, while Mike Poulin made 38 in the loss.
Fisticuffs that broke out at the 13:48 mark of the third resulted in fighting penalties and game misconducts to Sweeting and Thomas Hoggarth, as well as an unsportsmanlike conduct penalties to the Lakers bench.
It was Steenhuis’ third game since returning from an ankle injury suffered in the team’s season-opening win in Oakville on May 29.
Although he is now playing defence, he said the getting on the board so quick helped him get a “monkey” off his back. “It was nice,” he said of his two goals on fast breaks. “This building does wonderful things for our players and I was feeling that.”
Steenhuis said his health isn’t 100 per cent, but “things are heading the right way.”
It was also the first game of the season for Currier, who suffered a knee injury during the NLL season in March. The player of the game said he was happy to be back and able to contribute. “It felt great to be back.”
Currier and Turner Evans, who have played together since midget, acknowledged the chemistry that has been apparent between them.
“We’ve developed quite a chemistry over the years,” Turner Evans said.
Scoring so early really motivated the team, he said. “It gets the offence rolling and gets the defence moving the ball up.”