Lakers hold Maple Ridge to one goal
Mann Cup’s Game 2 is a blowout for hometown team
Game 2 of the Mann Cup was nothing like the first one.
Game 1 was a roller coaster, a thrilling nail-biter decided in sudden-death overtime. Game 2 was a slaughter with the Peterborough Century 21 Lakers dominating the Maple Ridge Burrards 10-1 before 3,364 fans at the Memorial Centre on Saturday night.
Matt Vinc stopped 30 of 31 shots in holding the Burrards to an unlikely one goal. The Lakers poured 61 shots on Maple Ridge netminder Frank Scigliano. The Lakers take a 2-0 lead in the Canadian Senior A Lacrosse final. Game 3 is 8 p.m. Monday at the PMC.
Maple Ridge scored the game’s first goal and didn’t score again. The Lakers had 10 unanswered tallies with four in the first and second periods and two in the third.
“That’s the most complete game we’ve played almost all year,” said Holden Cattoni, who led the way with three goals and an assist. “Definitely the best we’ve executed all year as a complete team.”
While it was a complete team effort, Vinc stopped Burrards shooters from getting any momentum.
“I’m trying to wrap my brain around the last time I’ve seen that,” Cattoni said, of allowing one goal against. “I can’t think of one. It’s incredible with the firepower they have on their team.”
Ex-Laker Curtis Dickson was held off the scoresheet.
The Burrards were assessed 118 penalty minutes to the Lakers 53 with Peterborough going three-for-12 on the power play and Maple Ridge zero-for-six.
Maple Ridge head coach Rob Williams said his team got frustrated at a number of non-calls on what they felt were Lakers' penalties.
“We’re not happy with the way we played and it starts here with the coaching staff,” said Williams. “We got a little rattled with what we felt were missed calls against them and calls against us. We’ve worked the last couple of years on controlling the bench and our emotions and I don’t feel like we did a good job of that and that starts at the top.
“That’s a great team over there. They played great. I feel like they got away with some stuff on our D guys and we got away with very little on their O guys.”
Williams said his team will take advantage of Sunday’s day off and be ready for Game 3.
“You saw in the first game this is a very resilient team,” he said. “The boys play for each other. We’re going to go out and eat together maybe have a couple of beers and regroup. We’ll get our chins up and think about the next one. It’s a seven-game series.”
There was no scoring until Mike Mallory’s overhand shot beat Vinc 8:37 in.
It was all Lakers after that. Their first goal was a highlight reel tally.
Shawn Evans used the swim move to get by a check then flipped a one-handed pass Cattoni rifled past Scigliano. Cattoni scored again 1:16 later on a power play shot from the top.
The goals came fast and furious as 59 seconds later Adam Jones buried Kyle Buchanan’s pass. Jake Withers then won a draw to himself ran down and scored within three seconds for four goals 2:19 apart.
“Our offence played very well moving the ball and finding their spots,” said Lakers captain Robert Hope. “
They put up a ton of shots. Another thing that might get overlooked is they pursued a lot of loose balls and didn’t allow them to break out clean which is all we ask of them. If they do that we can have success. Vino played very well. We had some lapses defensively where he bailed us out.”
Matt Gilray kept it going 1:39 into the second scooping a loose ball and dashing down the floor to score. Cattoni capped a hat trick at 5:12 picking the far corner on the run. Turner Evans made it 7-1 as he popped to the top to hammer a shot home off a Buchanan pass at 8:20 with the teams four-on-four. Cory Vitarelli broke a nearly 10minute stretch of no goals converting a behind-the-back pass from Turner Evans at 18 minutes.
The Lakers were down 2-0 in last year’s Mann Cup before rallying with four straight wins so they know things are far from over.
“It doesn’t mean anything until you get win number four,” said Turner Evans.
‘We will start a fresh series on Monday. We have the same mindset going into every game that every game counts.”
The Burrards came unglued taking two major penalties, misconducts and a game ejection to an assistant coach.
Turner Evans scored the first goal of the third 12:29 in with Corey Small picking up his third assist. Josh Currier rounded out the scoring.