Lakers expect to be pushed to the limits

Lakers can advance to host Mann Cup with a win, but Rock hope to keep their composure enough to tie series

The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers expect nothing less Saturday than to be pushed to the limits by the Oakville Rock.

The Lakers head to Oakville for Game 6 of the Major Series Lacrosse final with a 3-2 lead looking to clinch their ninth MSL title in 16 years. It would require the road team to win for the first time in the series to avoid Game 7 coming back to Peterborough on Monday. Both games are 7 p.m. starts.

The series has been as tight as one could expect. Two of the five have gone to overtime and each game has been tied at some stage of the third period. While this is Oakville’s first time in an MSL final, they’ve played like seasoned veterans continually battling back from deficits to push the Lakers.

“That’s what the next game is going to be like as well,” said Lakers head coach Mike Hasen.

“All year they haven’t gone away and there are no signs of them quitting. I don’t think it’s in their make-up, it’s not in their DNA. They are a bunch of young kids who want to prove something to themselves and to the rest of the lacrosse world.”

Rock head coach Matt Sawyer said Game 5 was a valuable lesson for his team as they learn what it takes to win.

“Ones like that need to sting and they should sting because I thought we had every opportunity to win that game,” he said.

“We weren’t quite good enough but the fact is we’re a team that is still growing. Sometimes you need to lose to figure out how to win. I know we’ll be better Saturday night for it.”

Sawyer thought his team lost a bit of composure in the third period on Thursday which cost them some penalties.

“We didn’t do the best job of playing in the moment,” he said.

“We let maybe some things you can’t control get us excited. We just need to focus on what we can’t control. We became undisciplined at times.”

Lakers defender Bryce Sweeting said they know their work is far from done.

“We know they’re not going to go away,” Sweeting said.

“Game 6 is going to be the hardest. They kind of hang around and when we make our mistakes they capitalize on them. Right now, we’re just trying to limit those.”

Games 4 and 5 were complete opposites. Game 4, an 8-6 overtime win for Oakville, was as tight a defensive battle as one could expect. Game 5 was a wide open offensive thriller with 25 total goals compared to 14 in Game 4.

“You have a lot of offensive guys out there who can shoot some good balls,” Sawyer said.

“I’m sure both goalies would say they’ve had better games. That may be one of the reasons but it’s not like they were weak goals. At some point guys are going to start finding posts and put them in. I think we saw that at both ends.”

“It was just one of those nights where our offence was really good,” Hasen said.

“Their offence is good. They’re dynamic and quick.”

The Western Lacrosse Association champion Maple Ridge Burrards, featuring former Laker Curtis Dickson, will head east next week to face the MSL champion for the Mann Cup Canadian championship starting Friday.