Lakers dig 2-0 hole
Peterborough regrouping after very different Mann Cup losses
Peterborough Century 21 Lakers stayed away from the arena Sunday in hopes of regrouping mentally and physically.
The Lakers are in a 2-0 hole at the Mann Cup after two vastly different losses to kick off the Canadian senior A lacrosse final in New Westminster, B.C.
The host Salmonbellies took advantage of a Lakers five-minute major penalty in overtime to pull out a 12-10 Game 1 win in a wildly entertaining see-saw battle Friday night. New West threw a first period blitzkrieg at the Lakers in Game 2 on Saturday running up a 5-0 lead in the opening seven minutes. They carried that five-goal margin to a 13-8 final. The Lakers trailed by as much as 8-1 and 13-6 and were never really in it
In Game 1, the ‘Bellies jumped to an early 3-0 lead but a six-goal second period had the Lakers up 7-5 after 40 minutes. New West rallied from an 8-5 deficit with three unanswered goals to force overtime.
The game was 9-9 when Thomas Hoggarth took a five-minute high sticking penalty. Curtis Dickson, who led the Lakers with four goals and four assists, scored shorthanded for a brief 10-9 lead but New West were on the power play the rest of overtime scoring three straight to win it. Joel McCready’s second of the game with 66 seconds left proved the winner, although, the Lakers contend Turner Evans scored a goal that would have made it 11-11 that never counted. He quick-sticked a pass from the back-door but the red light never went on and the referee waved the play on.
“I thought it went in the net,” Evans said. “I took a shot and I thought I saw it hit mesh. It’s pretty tight around the sides of the mesh and I thought it bounced right out.”
Mike Messenger, who has given Jake Withers trouble at the faceoff dot, sealed the win with an emptynet tally. Logan Schuss was the New West game star with nine points and Dickson for Peterborough.
“We beat ourselves,” said Dickson. “We had an 8-5 lead in the third period. Stupid penalties and bad shots and a combination of things and we kind of gave it away.”
As he did in Game 1, Kevin Crowley scored on the game’s first shot in the opening minute setting off a New West barrage. Junior Connor Robinson led New West with a hat trick and five points. They built a 5-0 lead they never really relinquished. A three-goal second period run by the Lakers cut the gap to 8-4, the closest they got. Adam Jones topped the Lakers with three goals and an assist to win Lakers’ game star honours. Evan Kirk was lifted after the sixth Salmonbellies goal in favour of Game 1 starter Matt Vinc.
Lakers’ defender Brock Sorensen says his team hasn’t quite adapted to a new environment but he’s confident they will.
“It’s a different crowd. A different floor. Different bounces. Different players who play a style we’re not used to but there is no question we’re going to bonce back here,” said Sorensen. “They’re throwing deep balls. They’re playing scramble ball almost where they’re shooting from places you don’t see in the summer or the winter. The ball is skipping off the floor a little bit but we’ll quickly adapt to that. I think you’ll see some different results the next four games, for sure.”
Brad Self, who scored twice in Game 2, said the Lakers need to regroup.
“They’re the western champs for a reason and we’re finding that out real quick,” said Self. “We need to make some changes. The biggest one is our preparation and making sure we’re ready to go. We were down 5-1 in Game 1 and at one point (Saturday) we were down 8-1. That’s a steep hill to climb.”
In Game 2, the Lakers outshot New West 59-44, with ‘Bellies’ goalie Alexis Buque winning game star honours. Lakers’ offensive coach Tracey Kelusky said he’s not mislead by the shot totals.
“A lot of the shots we were taking were ones they wanted to give us,” Kelusky said. “We didn’t always generate from good areas of the floor, we were sometimes shooting for the sake of shooting. Part of the game plan was to get more shots on net but we sometimes took the easy one or the first one as opposed to the best one.”