Lakers advance to the Mann Cup
Peterborough defeated Oakville 8-7 Saturday to win MSL title
OAKVILLE — The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers will host former teammate Curtis Dickson and the Maple Ridge Burrards for the 2018 Mann Cup.
The Lakers secured their ninth Major Series Lacrosse Championship in 16 years, and 26th in franchise history, with a hard fought 8-7 win over the Oakville Rock Saturday night at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre.
The Lakers rallied from a 5-2 deficit, led by Shawn Evans’s natural hat trick, to become the first road team to win in the series and clinch the best-of-seven final 4-2. They’ll host Game 1 of the Mann Cup Friday night at the Memorial Centre.
The Lakers outshot Oakville 66-45 but the game, as it did all series, went down to the final seconds.
The defending Mann Cup champions haven’t hosted the Canadian championship since 2012.
“It’s been a work in progress since I’ve been here to have that opportunity,” said Mike Hasen, in his fifth year as Lakers’ head coach. “It’s going to be great. The guys worked hard for it and we expect big things.”
With a good contingent of Peterborough fans in the building, Evans fired three straight goals in a five-goal run that rallied the Lakers from a 5-2 deficit to a 7-5 lead heading to the third period. Zach Currier’s third period goal was enough to clinch it.
“We shut the door on the back end and Vino (goalie Matt Vinc) played really well,” said Currier. “And our offence was getting off the floor for us.
“Oakville wasn’t going away. After game one (an overtime win), we thought that was their best but they kept getting better,” said Currier.
“It feels great,” said Evans. “The last two minutes was one of those nail biters trying to hold on. We didn’t want to go to Game 7 and needed to do whatever it took and we did tonight.”
The Lakers look forward to facing Dickson.
“We’re going to have to lock up on him,” said Evans. “He’s scored about 40 goals in the playoffs.
He’s a hell of a player and they’re going to be good. We can’t underestimate this team. We’ll have to play our game, our systems and have the fan behind us.”
Three goals in 2:47 helped Oakville build a 4-2 lead after 20 minutes despite being outshot 27-16.
Brett Hickey set up Brandon Slade from behind the net at 7:32. Holden Cattoni responded stealing a ball and going in alone on goalie Nick Rose 1:56 later.
Oakville’s run started with Johnny Powless getting inside on the Lakers’ defence at 10:13. Dan Craig followed with an underhand shot through traffic and Matt Van Galen’s outside shot beat Vinc. Cory Vitarelli got the Lakers’ second goal cutting in front from the side of the net to drop a shot in at 16:11.
Jeremy Noble set up Hickey in front 1:18 into the second but five straight Lakers’ goals turned the game.
Three goals 4:51 apart tied it. Andrew Suitor finished a transition break from Matt Gilray at 7:02, Cattoni one-timed an Evans pass from long range then returned the favour setting up Evans at the edge of the crease at 11:53.
Evans wired a backhand shot by Rose for the Lakers’ first lead with 1:33 left in the second. He capped a natural hat trick with nine seconds to go firing a shot while diving to avoid the crease.
“I try to do whatever I can to make us successful,” said Evans. “In the second period, I kind of took it into my hands to take some chances and those chances worked out.”
Craig found a hole in the Lakers’ defence to break the Lakers’ run 2:14 into the third. Currier replied 1:53 later taking Vinc’s long pass to score on a breakaway. Tanner Thomson found a lane to the net to draw Oakville within 8-7 at 8:42. The final 11:18 was scoreless.
Lakers 8 Rock 7
Series: Lakers win the best-ofseven Major Series Lacrosse final 4-2. Lakers scorers: Shawn Evans (3-1), Holden Cattoni (2-1), Zach Currier (1-2), Andrew Suitor (1-0), Cory Vitarelli (1-0), Kyle Buchanan (0-2), Matt Gilray (0-1), Thomas Hoggarth (0-1), Adam Jones (0-1), Chad Tutton (0-1), Matt Vinc (0-1).
Rock scorers: Dan Craig (2-2), Johnny Powless (1-2), Brett Hickey (1-1), Brandon Slade (1-1), Tanner Thomson (1-0), Matt Van Galen (1-0), Jeremy Noble (0-4), Jason Noble (0-1), Challen Rogers (0-1), Pat Walsh (0-1).
Next Action: The Lakers host the Maple Ridge Burrards in Game 1 of the Mann Cup Friday .